Rotational Presidency Uncounstitutional – YAHAYA BELLO
POLITICS DIGEST – Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello, said the agitations by the Southern governors to produce the next president “is unconstitutional.”
Yahaya Bello said both Nigeria law book and the constitution of all political parties does not in any way give credence to such agitation.
Speaking Friday in Abuja at a two-day workshop for the crime reporters and political reporters, governor Bello said North-central where he comes from has never had a short at Presidency even before the country returned to democracy in 1999.
According to the governor, Nigeria of today deserved the best. Nigeria is a ship or a flight that requires the best captain to steer or lead the affairs of the nation to a desire destination.
“I have always asked this question, there has been rotation so to speak from PDP almost all this while, and what has been our result between then and now? If zoning will solve our problem as at the time President Olusegun Obasanjo was the president two times, all the problems of the South should have been solved. As at the time President Musa Yar’dua of blessed memory came on board, the whole problems of the North should have been solved. Or when it returned back to the South-south, the problem of the Riverine, Niger Delta or of the whole of the South should have been solved.
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“Now we have President Muhammadu Buhari and it is expected that the problem of the North should have been solved. I am not saying this various leaders have not tried their best. They have tried their best within the circumstances they found themselves in the office or the situation of things at that times and what Mr President is doing today. For crying out loud, he is at his best practice.
“When we are talking of democracy, it is about free choice. And it is about the number. Let the majority be allowed the free will to choose who they want. Let political parties not limit Nigerians to who they want to elect into offices.
“When you look at it, I think it is unconstitutional. Not in our own constitution APC and it is not there in the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended. We cannot be picking and choosing when it suits us. Today, if you are sick and wants to be operated upon, you will want the best doctor to operate on you. Not where the doctor comes from. Nor the religion that he practiced. But who is the best doctor. Let us put that aside.
“If we should continue on this sentiment of rotation of presidency to this region or to that region, I said let us do it perfectly. In the interest of fairness, equity and justice, if that is the angle you want to come from, fine. Let us go on the table and look at it. And we should not just look at it from 1999 but let us go back to 1960.
“From the independence that we Nigerians have been leading ourselves, let extrapolate all the various leaders we have heard at the national level you will discover that all the geopolitical zones as it exist today, have at one time or the other occupied the position of the presidency, either as President or vice president. The North-central has been shortchanged. “
Yahaya Bello, however canvassed for a President of Nigeria and not of any zone .
“I will suggest that we should allow the best candidate to emerge who will unify this country. Who will solve the problems that we are facing today. Who will build on the legacy that mr. President leave behind. That is my position on the issue of rotational presidency.”
