Major stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have thrown their weight behind power shift to the South after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
The quest for power shift has been a major contention between the North and the South in the recent time.
Although the decision to concede the presidential ticket of the APC to the South has not been officially announced for strategic reason, The Star has exclusively gathered that consensus has been finally reached among the key stakeholders, especially governors, that special consideration should be given to aspiring candidates from the South in order to ensure equity and fair play.
However, while APC has ultimately laid the matter to rest for now, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still dilly-dallying on the final decision to either respect or jettison the zoning arrangement contained in its constitution.
Confirming the latest decision of the APC, one of the governors, who confided in The Star, said consensus had been reached among the major stakeholders to concede the presidential slot to the South in 2023.
This, according to him, is not only to preserve the unity of the country but also sustain the internal cohesion within the fold.
The governor said: “For obvious reasons, APC has not released any official statement on the agitation by the Southern governors for power shift; but I can confirm to you that, at last, consensus has been reached to concede the presidential ticket to aspiring candidates from the South.
“I have read so many insinuations in the newspapers that power shift has been approved by the APC leadership because the chairmanship position has been zoned to the North. It is true that only Northern candidates have indicated interest in the chairmanship position of our party. But to say that power shift has been settled on the basis of that is a mere conjecture or speculation.
“However, following the recent meetings of the APC governors and other major stakeholders, decision has been finally reached by consensus that the South should be given the opportunity to produce the next President.
“Of course, some Northern governors were hesitant because of the confrontational approach of their colleagues in the South, after a prolonged argument, they all agreed to the principle of fair play.”
In their recent resolution, Southern governors had insisted that power must shift to their region, prompting an exchange of brickbats between them and their Northern counterparts.
At separate meetings held on July 5 and September 18 in Lagos and Enugu respectively, the 17 Southern governors had declared that the next President must necessarily come from the South.
But the Northern States Governors’ Forum, in a sharp reaction, condemned the approach, arguing that the position of their colleagues was contrary to the provision of the constitution.
A communiqué read by Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau State reads in part: “The statement is quite contradictory with the provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended, that the elected President shall: score the majority votes; score at least 25% of the votes cast in 2/3 of the federation. In the case of run-up, simple majority wins the election.”
Now that the APC has finally bowed to the pressure, the contest has been thrown open to the three geo-political zones in the region – South-West, South-South and South-East.
So far, only the Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has indicated interest in the race from the South-South, while Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State is also said to be eyeing the coveted seat from the South-East.
For the South-West, the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi are being touted as major contenders.
Beyond the personal influence, political structures as well as the weights of these prospective aspirants, the voting strength of each zone is going to be a major determining factor in nominating the party’s presidential flag bearer. According to the voter register used for the conduct of the 2019 general election, the total number of eligible voters stands at 84,004,084. Out of this figure, the South-West records 16,292,212, accounting for 19.39% registered voters, while the South-South has 12,841,2179 registered voters, representing 15.29% of the total votes cast. The South-East comes last with the total number of registered voters standing at 10,057,130 voters, representing 11.97%.
Going by these figures, the South-West stands in a good stead to clinch the ticket, if the actors would agree to a consensus arrangement. Added to that, the South-West has five APC serving governors, while the South-East has two and South-South has only one governor.
Meanwhile, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has confirmed that Northern governors are not opposed to power shift to the South.
El-Rufai said some of the Northern governors have publicly supported power shift to the South in 2023, but were not comfortable with the approach of their Southern colleagues.
“Some of us have been very public about our support for power shift. I first made my views clear on this matter late in 2019. We did that because we believe that it will help advance and promote national unity. What is not proper is for our colleagues – Governors – in the South to be couching their demands with words like must in a process that requires discussions, negotiations and consensus building.
“What the northern governors did was to condemn that statement for saying there must be power shift. We did not condemn or oppose power shift,” the Kaduna State governor said in a recent interview.
Also, former Governor of Kano State and a serving senator, Ibrahim Shekarau, said he is for power shift in 2023. He, however, cautioned the proponents of power shift to negotiate not issuing threats.
“As far as the party I belong is concerned, the APC, my proposal is that now that President Buhari is from the northern part of the country, let beam the searchlight to the southern part of Nigeria. This is not because we don’t have competent people in the North…but we must also be mindful of the sense of belonging,” Shekarau said.
A former member of the National Assembly from Ogun State, Senator Gbenga Obadara, while speaking in a telephone interview with our correspondent, exuded confidence that the South-West would pick the ticket, saying politics is a game of number.
“Politics is about what you have contributed to the party. Is the volume of votes we had in 2019 general election in the South-West the same with the South-East or South-South? In the South-South, we have only one APC governor who even decamped to APC. Are we going to say because of that we will take the presidency to that place? Politics is not like that,” Obadara said.
The question remains: Who will pick the ticket? The answer is in the womb of time.
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