An Ijaw opinion leader and legal luminary, Dr. Clarkson Aribogha, has said that it is politically harmful to the Southern region for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari should forget the 2019 Presidential election.
He said that the call would definitely pave the way for the North to elongate its hold on power in Nigeria for another eight years after the end of Buhari’s four years.
Dr. Aribogha, in an interview with journalists said that if another northerner took the place of Buhari in 2019, as implied in Obasanjo’s broadly publicized letter, the northerner would want to rule till 2027, thereby giving the north a third tenure in a possible power equation to the disadvantage of the south.
He said: “We have internal arrangement concerning the south and northern part of Nigeria. When I say the south, it can be the south-west, south-east or south-south because we have rotational presidency arrangement. Now, it is the turn of the north that has produced the president in person of Buhari, who is currently representing the north.”
“By constitutional empowerment, the north has the right for a second tenure. My fear for the future is the impending conflict between the north and south, but if Buhari is replaced and another northerner comes on board, it will cause some problems because it will elongate the tenure of the north than the south because the next person coming after Buhari will surely go for second tenure.”
“By so doing, the north will have third tenure to the disadvantage of the south. So, Chief Obasanjo has not touched that area. I really want him to address that area because of the confusion that will trail the replacement of Buhari in 2019,” he added.
Arigbogha asserted: “However, I am pleading that Nigerians should allow Buhari to complete the two tenures for the north, thereafter; the pendulum will shift to the south. No doubt, this will bring about peace in our democratic system in order to avoid crisis in the nearest future.”
“I will describe that letter to the current President by Chief Obasanjo as a personal opinion and that is how it stands. I wish to also label it as an advice to President Buhari. Obasanjo is one of those former Presidents and Head of State that had ruled this country. Danger of dropping Buhari He said that those in the south, who want Buhari out in 2019, erroneously calculated that they would undo the north, not knowing that.
“if Buhari is dropped, it is another northerner that is coming to replace him. Indeed, the north is not losing anything; my argument is that there should be equal representation for both north and south that one side should not spend more time than the other. Hence, I am saying that Buhari should be allowed to complete the north’s second tenure because if Buhari is replaced, any other person coming will elongate the tenure of the north.
“I do not think that the rotational presidency we are doing now is based on the six geo-political zones. The fact is that we have northern and southern part of Nigeria, so, my argument is that the presidency should rotate between the north and south,” he added.
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