Senator for Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani has advised President Muhammadu Buhari and governors on the APC platform to back a Southerner for president in 2023 in fulfilment of a “gentleman agreement” entered into pre-2015.
Sani stated this in a Wednesday tweet.
There have been controversy over the existence of such an agreement, with some APC stalwarts confirming it.
A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Otunba Olusegun Osoba said in 2021, “My honest opinion is this, I was the chairman of the constitutional drafting committee of the APC merger. We of ACN, we were the dominant group from the South and the Southwest is the home and the root of progressive politicking.
“Part of the understanding in the case of rotation is a conventional understanding that the presidency will move between the North and the South. That was the reason why we now allowed the chairman (of the party), I dont want to use the world zoning, because we definitely did not put zoning, we know it may go in conflict with the Nigerian constitution which says anyone who is a Nigerian, who has read up to school certificate can contest and at the age of 35 I think can contest for the presidency of the country.
“But there was a clear gentlemanly understanding that the northern part of the country will produce the president when we did the merger in 2013, and the chairman of the party will then come from the south.”
Sani said, “The president and the ruling party Governors should honour their ‘gentleman agreement’ and allow for a southern candidate to emerge.”