Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state on Wednesday clarified that the Northern States Governors’ Forum did not oppose the idea of zoning presidency to the south in 2023, rather it is against the language used in the resolution of the Southern Governors on the issue of power shift.
El-Rufai said that northern governors were alarmed that their southern counterparts will use the word “must” in their agitation for power shift to the south after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
According to the governor, the word ‘’must’’ is at variance with democracy which is characterized by negotiations and horse-trading by parties involved, often out of the public glare.
The governor recalled that himself and “some other northern governors had earlier called for power shift in 2023 in their individual capacities in order to foster national unity and togetherness”, adding: “I was called names by our people for making that call.”
El Rufai who made these clarifications in a media chat with select Kaduna-based radio stations on Tuesday night said that the media misrepresented the resolution of the Northern Governors’ Forum meeting which held on Monday, on power shift.
The governor who spoke in the Hausa language, also stated that “the north has supported southern presidential aspirants in the past,” recalling that it “supported Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s aspiration in 1999 and his re-election in 2003”.
According to him, southern governors should have reached out to their northern counterparts on the issue of power shift instead of playing to the gallery.
He pointed out that the APC has no provision of power shift in its constitution, adding that even the PDP which has it in its constitution, flouted their own law during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2011, where the president stood for re-election.