Second Republic Governor of Kaduna, Balarabe Musa has said that the Southeast geopolitical zone deserved to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023.
Musa disclosed this in an interview published by Saturday Sun.
He urged the North and Southwest to allow the president for the sake of “equity”.
Reacting to calls for the 2023 presidency to be zoned to the Southeast, the elder statesman said:
In the first place, the North, the Southwest should allow the Southeast the opportunity to produce the president in 2023. We have talked about rotation and we have talked about sense of belonging, and we have talked about four basic zones – the North, the Southwest, the Southeast and the South-South. The presidency has gone to the North so many times, it has gone to the Southwest once and it has also gone to the South-South once. So, it remains the Southeast. Why can’t that zone also have this opportunity so that they can have a sense of belonging, and for the country to have peace?
It is just equitable and non-negotiable.
Why will somebody say it must come from the North again, or from the Southwest or the South-South? Those holding this position are troublemakers; they are not fair and just. However, we will not make the mistake we made in 1999, 2007,2011, etc, because the Southwest, the North and the South-South were donating anybody on the basis of rotation; anybody from the North, anybody from the Southwest and anybody from the South-South.
This time, it should not be like before. Nigeria, as a whole by whatever means shall select from the Southeast the best. It is not just the Southeast donating anybody like other zones have done in the past. This time, as it rotates to the Southeast, Nigerians should collectively decide, which person from that zone is best suited to be the president, it is not just for the Southeast alone to decide and donate to the country like the North, the Southwest and South-South have done before.
It is for all of us including the Southeast to put our heads together and bring someone equivalent of Zik of Africa from the Southeast and the country will be okay with that. But, if because of this rotation, you just bring anybody from the Southeast, it will be no better than what we have had from the North, from the Southwest and from the South-South, and we may end up with what we have been having or worse.