The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has disagreed with former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, that rotating the office of the president between the north and south is imperative to keep Nigeria one and united.
Sani had challenged Nigerians to accept the reality of their history and continue with the rotational presidency arrangement for now, noting that things might change with time but at the moment, the arrangement is more of giving a sense of belonging to every part of the country to produce leadership.
He said given the arrangement, no part of the country in power could use either their demographic or geographical advantage to remain in office perpetually, saying that same arrangement was equally applicable at the state level.
“We are a country of experience. There are many African countries that never had the kind of experience we had. We had been through a period of violent military coup, civil war, different democratic governments and military rules, and we all survived. Now we are experiencing banditry, terrorism and I believe we will survive. If you look at the multi-ethnic/religious nations such as ours, people feel more comfortable when they see someone from their part of the country in power.”
Sani recalled that before the emergence of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, there were several incidences of attacks on the country’s oil pipelines.
He, however, stressed the need for Nigerians to realise the fact that rotational presidency might not mean that when a president comes from a particular part of the country, the problems of the people from that zone would automatically be will be solved.
“Former president, Muhammadu Buhari, was seen by the northerners as a magician and a miracle worker who would solve all the problems of northern Nigeria; he came, saw and left the problems as they were.
“Now it is the turn of the South West, Jonathan had equally left, maybe other parts of the country yet to be there are the ones dreaming what others had already experienced.
“I believe that it will reach a point in our history where everyone will realise that the ethnic and religious identities of a leader doesn’t mean the solutions to the problems before a nation and that is when we will consider abandoning rotation of the presidential seat,” he said.
But National President of the MBF, Bitrus Pogu, disagreed that a rotational presidency is sacrosanct for Nigeria. He said, however, that Nigeria has not become a nation yet hence rotational presidency is necessary.
He said: “I don’t agree fully because many countries in spite of their pluralities have moved forward with even dictatorship. This rotational presidency which we insist on in Nigeria and which I agree to is because we have not reached that stage where anyone can be president for as long as possible. We have not yet become a nation and because of that, every nationality or section or religious groups only think of themselves rather than thinking of Nigeria and that is why the rotational presidency is necessary.
“I say it is necessary because we have not been united as a nation. When we are united as a nation, the president would be someone who can perform and do the job of developing the country. By that time, it would not matter whether one is from the north or south. But with the rotational presidency, when it comes to the northerner, he thinks of only his people and vice versa. The problem is that we have not become a nation yet and that is why the rotational presidency is necessary.”
Meanwhile, Sani has dismissed the opposition’s coalition targeted at unseating President Tinubu in 2027, boasting that it was dead on arrival.
He said even though it is within the democratic rights of Nigerians to organise themselves into a coalition, credentials of those championing the exercise have shown clearly that the move would be in a total fiasco.
“Yes, any country or government without opposition can easily slide into a dictatorship or one-party state.
“If everyone goes into one political party and there is nobody to challenge the government or hold the government to account, our government could be run aground.
“We need a coalition and we need a credible opposition; a credible opposition should not be a canopy of frustrated and angry people, whose interest is not the country or the people, but their own selfish interest.
“There are people in this coalition whose presence will give you ghost pimples. Someone like former governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai.
“He is not a clean political figure that came out of the trenches; he is not someone who has never been in government.
“Nigeria just celebrated 26 years of democracy and El-Rufai was the Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises for four years, minister for four years, governor for eight years, and so why did he not achieve all those things he is saying now while in office,” he queried?
Sani said if one had been in the office for almost 20 years and the person is in his mid-60, such a person should be thankful to God because millions of people wanted to get what such person was taking for granted.
He said though former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, one of the opposition figures, had the constitutional right to contest, he should not vie for the 2027 presidential election.
Sani said Atiku should allow a southerner to contest and serve out the turn of the South, saying by doing that, he would have the moral right to seek the support of the south in 2031.
“As someone who has been in the political realm more than many other politicians, he should know that there are consequences for contesting elections every other time and losing.
“Atiku should not allow himself to be seen as a face of failure. He should rather be a good mathematician and a good hunter who knows when it is right to contest elections.
“When you have someone from the north who spent eight years in office and a southerner just spent four years in office, and you are in the opposition, you have to present someone from the south as your party’s candidate.
“You don’t build an opposition on the foundation of frustration and non-inclusion. All those things El-Rufai is saying about Tinubu is because he failed the ministerial test.
“If he was made a minister today, he would have been one of the vociferous attackers of anyone who says anything against Tinubu.
“Now he has reached a point whereby his utterances lack decorum, no restraint, and you can see anger, frustration and even desperation on his face.
“He has moved away from pinpointing areas where the government is not doing well to personal attacks on Mr President, and when one has reached such a level, it is more of exhibition of anger than playing opposition roles,” he said.
The former senator said that for Atiku venturing into contesting yhe 2027 presidential election, he would be greeted with a lot of controversies.
“Atiku has a lot of good political credentials. For instance, when, as activists, we were in prison in the 90s, he was in touch with us.
“I happened to share the same prison at Kirikiri, Lagos with the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who was Atiku’s mentor and Uba Sani was the contact between us and the outside world at that time,” he recalled.
According to him, the strategies being employed by the coalition cannot fetch those behind it any result.
“For instance, the coalition ought to be looking at sectoral performances of the government in order to win support from the masses; rather, they are attacking the government aimlessly.
“Unfortunately, El-Rufai as a governor in Kaduna left with bad records.
“He treated the people from Southern Kaduna viciously, sacking thousands of teachers without paying them, sacking thousands of civil servants, disobeying court orders and arresting journalists and activists, and imprisoning them.
“El-Rufai left mountain of debts and series of uncompleted projects, among other infractions and yet, coming now to preach about good governance, sanity and peace,” he said.
On the recent mass killings in Yelewata, Guma area of Benue, he said there was the need to solve the problem to avoid a reoccurrence.
Sani noted that the situation in Benue was equally evident in Plateau and Nasarawa states.
According to him, the solution to the problem is for the northerners to see the situation as a collective problem that should be jointly addressed.
“It is time for the political leaders in these parts of the country to sit down and address the problem, to secure both the people and the country.
“How this can be done is simple. For instance in Benue, the Fulani people have been living in there for more than a century and have been well accommodated.
“There is even a folk relationship between the Tiv people and the Fulani people for centuries. So at what point was the trigger for this violence?
“This is what the north needs to dig into and address. The Fulani people are not farmers, they are herders, while the Tiv people and Idoma people are farmers.
“If you allow your cattle to destroy the crops in the farm of someone, you are destroying the person’s life and if you go and spray pesticides that kill my cattle, you are equally triggering an issue,” he said.
The former lawmaker said that it would be wrong to use the solutions to problems in the 20th century to solve problems of the 21st century.