Former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh has said that the North has the right to produce the president in 2023 just like any other region.
He made the assertion while disagreeing with calls for the presidency to be zoned to Southern Nigeria at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term.
Momoh said that zoning of presidential ticket of any political party to any region remained a political party arrangement that is neither endorsed nor condemned by the Nigerian Constitution.
The ex-minister noted that those calling for power to remain in the north in 2023 therefore had the right to make such calls.
Speaking with Saturday Sun on calls for power to remain in the north after 2023, Momoh stated:
Have they no right to say so? I spoke about freedom of expression. Have they no right to say where power would go to. Even when they say we would give power to a particular area, is it always the case? When power was zoned to the South West in 1999, was it only the South West that contested for the presidency? Many people contested election. I was Ekwueme’s media campaign director. He was not from South West and he contested the 1999 presidential election. Other people contested. Nwobodo, and I think even Okorocha contested. Abubakar Rimi contested. If you say you are giving a particular position to one part of the country, anybody could get up and say no, I do not agree. The constitution did not stop anybody to contest because of a political arrangement by a political party or group. So, if they say the position of the president is going to the South in 2003, it is only a political party that could do so. Remember, about 90 political parties are there and they can say they want to pick their own candidate from any part of the country. It is political sophistry for someone to pick a political candidate from somewhere the votes would come from. You cannot deny that.
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