The Chairman of Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has warned that they will only support candidates from the North in the race for 2023 presidency.
In an interview with the Sun, Abdullahi condemned Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, for holding Hausa/Fulani responsible for Nigeria’s problems.
When specifically asked if there is an unwritten agreement among northern leaders, to oppose the return of the presidency to the south in 2023, he replied: “Well, you see the question of where power goes, has multi-dimensional bases. If you go back to the period, from 1990, there has been politics that made it possible for power to go to where Nigerians have generally agreed to go.
“This is regardless of the relative definition of democracy, which says on the basis of one man one vote, power resides with the majority while the minority will always have their say. But victory remains with the majority. From my personal experience, I can count three occasions where the issue of power shift was determined by the plurality of the voters.
“I could start with my personal friend, General Obasanjo. He was elected mainly by the North. Obasanjo’s first term was entirely determined by the North. He did not get any vote from the southwest. Chief Olu Falae won the western part of the country while south-east and south-south voted against Obasanjo’s candidature.
“In the second term, few things began to emerge, which showed whether the northern support was enough or worth it to determine his continuous support. Obasanjo’s success was determined by northern votes.
“My understanding of this issue has gone beyond party formation rather social; some of it historical. Obasanjo was former military officer, former head of state as a military officer, he made his own friends and enemies while he was serving in the military.
“But by and large, when this discussion settled down, the next civilian president after General Abubakar Abdusalami should come from the South. That was a general understanding within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which I was there, and I took part in designing the manifestoes and the party’s constitution at the time. The party agreed that power from time to time should rotate between the North and the South. Though not all agreed, my friend, late Abubakar Rimi, objected and insisted that he would contest the election and I think Senator Gemade also objected and quite a number of others. But it was their constitutional right to contest and of course, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria supersedes the party’s constitution.
“We left the South to determine whom to choose. Later, south-west, southeast and south-south produced General Obasanjo and Dr Alex Ekwueme, while Obasanjo ultimately emerged as candidate and president in 1999. So if you are looking at that, you can say yes. The rotation was a practice in Nigerian democracy.
“After the tenure of Obasanjo in 2007, based on the principle and understanding built on his own election, the party started shopping for who will take over from the North. Despite all rumours of third term, the power later shifted back to the north and late Umaru Yar’Adua became the president.
“So on that basis, one could see that if this had continued, perhaps the definition of democracy in Nigeria would have been slightly different from the universal definition. This rotation was modified democracy to suit the circumstances and challenges facing the Nigerian state particularly our diversity.
“So, Umaru Yar’adua died after three years, now the question would arise; has the north finished its term? No, the north was supposed to finish its eight years, which Obasanjo had. So, north should continue keeping power for another four years after Jonathan must have completed the remaining one year of Yar’adua’s tenure as provided in the constitution of Nigeria.
“We expected the PDP to say that the next president would come from the north. But it never happened, which marked the beginning of the breakdown of the spirit of power shift. The south largely insisted that with the support of the Northern governors, Jonathan should continue which means that the north has been shortchanged in terms of the period agreed for power to rotate between the north and the south. You can see that it was the PDP itself that first truncated the sprit of zoning or power shift especially on the basis of time.
“It was the beginning of the crisis. That was the time when we in the Northern Elders Forum and others fought Jonathan’s re-election in 2011, though we did not succeed because the north supported him. Again, he wanted to continue in 2015, that would have been a serious violation of the constitution, we insisted no.
“The spirit of power shift or zoning under the platform of PDP had been broken down. I think the reason for the breakdown was influenced by the position taken by President Jonathan because he challenged that there were no documents to show the agreement of power shift or zoning. We rejected his position and insisted that it was a violation of the agreement in principles. Eventually, he contested but failed and Buhari won.
“It is also important to remind ourselves whenever you are talking about power shift between the South and the North that, it was only PDP that had a power shift agreement; it is not in the Constitution of the country.
“However, the issue of zoning was part of the recommendations of the 1999 constitutional conference but the then military head of state said no; it is difficult to change constitution of the country therefore that arrangement should not be included in the constitution instead it should be left with parties to use it for the purpose of getting party’s spread around the country. That is why it was not put in our constitution.
“So, zoning has no place or ground in the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. It was a political party affair based on willingness and agreement of members. No party has that arrangement except PDP.
“81% of Buhari votes in 2015 and 2019 came from the North. Though, I am not a card-carrying member of any political party, I am not sure whether APC has any arrangement like this. Hence, they don’t have the issue of power shift and zoning does not arise. It could be right or wrong to adopt it, yet the decision is left to the party. I think it’s something that we have to be careful about. I think there is nothing wrong at all if the north keeps power for century because democracy is all about numbers and we have it.
“You see, the North is the most liberal voting block in Nigerian political history. For instance, Abiola defeated Bashir Tofa in Kano and other parts of the North in the 1993 presidential elections. This liberal attitude of northerners in the political environment made it possible to prepare the ground for a democratic system to have a foundation and solidify.
“I don’t think there is any public debate as to whether the north will vote in one direction or party. In fact, we are yet to have political party accepted by northerners in 2023 talk less of a candidate presented to the North to vote for. Maybe in the near future, we shall unveil our plan to Nigerians. The beginning of our resistance to Jonathan was not for him in person but to some people around him and PDP, which betrayed our agreement to hand over to North. With respect to personal integrity and honour of President Jonathan, if he had come out to say that yes, it is not my turn but I need your support to continue, that would have been a different thing but he did not do that, instead, he kept challenging.
“I wrote an open letter to Chief Edwin Clark during the controversy, reminding him on agreement we reached between myself, late Olusola Saraki and himself on the need to keep the relationship together on the nomination of candidate where if the north presents a presidential candidate, the deputy should come from south-south, this arrangement we worked for eventually produced Umaru Musa Yar’adua and Jonathan Goodluck as Vice President.
“You see with the support of the North they succeeded and in 2015 the south-south wanted to cheat the north again. This is a clear indication that some people did not care about the right of others in the north. That was why we in the Northern Elders Forum fought against it.
“I kept saying since and will repeat it that any party that gives us a candidate of northern extraction will be supported in 2023.”
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