El-Rufai urges APC to honour zoning
THE Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has joined the conversation surrounding the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria
Addressing speculations whether he would be contesting for the presidency, Amaechi advised the APC to respect the zoning formula in regards to selecting a presidential candidate.
On the possibility of contesting for the president either in 2023 or in the future following his campaign posters and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai seen in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Amechi evaded the question and rather emphasised on the need for the presidency to go to South, even as he is primarily concerned with his job as a minister presently..
Source says, the posters which did not have the logo of any Nigerian political party had the face of Amaechi for president and El-Rufai as the vice president.
The minister who refused to answer on whether he would vie for the presidential ticket explained that he was focusing on his job at the ministry as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari,
Meanwhile Kaduna State Governor, El-Rufai has thrown his weight behind the emergence of the country’s president in 2023 from the South.
The minister agreed with the submission of his counterpart, Babatunde Fashola, in the Ministry of Works and Housing, that the ruling party should honour the zoning agreement in picking its presidential candidate for 2023.
Meanwhile, Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru el-Rufai has charged the All Progressive Congress (APC) to honour zoning arrangement ahead of 2023 .
El-Rufai made the plea on yesterday, while speaking to the media, saying it would be better if the party zones the presidency to the south in 2023.
Amid the heat of speculations over which geopolitical zone should produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor, El-Rufai says the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) should as a matter of commitment honour the ‘informal agreement’ of ensuring that power goes to the southern region of the country in 2023 as the rotational agreement demands..
“I think it is important to make this clarification. Personally, I am against zoning because I believe that no country has made progress choosing leaders based on where they come from or their ethnicity or religion. The governor, however, noted that after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC should honour the informal agreement of ensuring that power goes to the south.”
Continuing, ” I believe after the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, we should honour the informal agreement of ensuring that power goes to the south. Whether it is southwest, southeast, South-south, that is a different matter. I am against and I don’t practise it.”
In a similar vein, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had also asked the APC to honour its agreement on zoning.
“But what we have a gentleman agreement that the power should go to the south and I support that. It is up to the party, at the right time, to make that decision. Our party has not taken any position as far as I know.”
It would be recalled that El-Rufai had once kicked the zoning process among political parties, insisting that it would not solve the economic problems facing the country.
It was reported that there has been subtle anxiety across parties and the political class in the country in the past few weeks about rotating the presidency between the north and south come 2023.
El-Rufai, however, suggested that everyone should be given an equal opportunity to run for office, and not based on ethnicity.
