A Chieftain of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Enugu State, Chief Osita Okechukwu, has said that no southern politician will be allowed to contest with northerners in 2031 once President Bola Tinubu is given the benefit of the second term.
This is as he urged Nigerians especially Northern politicians to allow Tinubu to finish his second term.
Okechukwu, a former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) made the call during the flagging off of the APC e-registration at Eke Ward in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State on Saturday.
He noted that the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would be presumed winner of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) primaries and urged him to adhere to zoning and rotational formula of Nigeria presidency.
Speaking after his registration, the party chieftain endorsed President Bola Tinubu for second term, calling on Abubakar to allow him to complete his second tenure before power rotated to the North.
“By the Tinubu finishes in 2031, any southerner who is coming for president, we will not allow the person because it will be the turn of the North,” he said.
Okechukwu said that Abubakar did not have the interest and unity of Nigeria at heart if he decided to contest against the turn of the south.
He explained that Abubakar benefited from the same rotation in 1999 where he became the Vice President under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“If not for good faith, restraint and self-censorship, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, and Bukola Saraki were all qualified by any standard but conceded power to the south.
“This was how Abubakar became vice president under Obasanjo,” he said
He disclosed that the origin of rotation started in Switzerland in 1848 and it was based on good faith that individuals should place the unity of their country first with equity and sense of belonging of every group.
“Other countries practiced it in one variant or the other but for us, after the military coup and the long reign of the military regime in Nigeria, some Nigerian patriots came together.
“Their conclusion was that the only place to shift power was the South and also to please Abiola and his followers, was to do a rotation convention whereby it will be the turn of the South after which, the North takes over.
“And that was exactly what happened because from 1999 to 2007, the South finished and handed over to a northerner,” he said .
He recalled that in 2003 that Abubakar breached that same zoning that brought the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into crisis that killed the party.
The APC chieftain regretted that under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that Abubakar was championing, had thrown its presidency open undermining the rotational arrangement of the country.
“So to sustain economic reforms of Tinubu, Nigeria’s democracy and peace of the country, the south under Tinubu should be allowed to complete their eight years in power,” he stressed.
Extolling Tinubu’s economic reforms, Okechukwu said the economy was bouncing back, expressing optimism that Nigerians would see more gains of the reform in Tinubu’s second term.
Also speaking, a member of APC at the ward, Mrs Kate Offor, said that the APC e-registration was an eloquent testimony that the government of APC was transparent and that the projected election of 2027 would be fair, free and credible.
She explained that with the registration of APC members meant that its numbers would not be inflated or truncated, stressing that Tinubu would have a landslide victory in 2027.
On his part, the APC e-registration Agent in Eke Ward, Mr Chibuzor Onyeama, explained that the exercise had kicked off at the ward, pledging to register more members.
“The registration requirements are your National Identification Number (NIN), voter’s number, and your phone number. Our only challenge was little network hitches,” he said.
