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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