Leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), Chief Edwin Clark, has reminded former vice president Atiku Abubakar, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of the roles they played to prevent the re-election of former President, Goodluck Jonathan, for allegedly violating zoning principle in 2015, advising them not to run for the 2023 ticket in the interest of national unity.
In a statement he made available to the media in Abuja, on Tuesday, the elder statesman told them that after the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, no northerner should be seeking to be president, noting that the region has already ruled Nigeria for 45 out of its 61 years as a nation in both civilian and military dispensations.
He said the three prominent members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other northern politicians who are contemplating contesting the 2023 presidential election should abandon their plans, saying that to continue with ambitions is to invite chaos.
Clark noted: “Firstly, I wish to use this medium to advise my most respected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftains in the persons of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State, and other PDP aspirants from the north, that in the interest of maintaining the unity of this country to which they have contributed so much, to re-consider their desire of wanting to contest for the Presidential election in 2023, because both by the PDP Constitution and by convention, it is now the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce the President of Nigeria, in 2023, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years.
“To do otherwise is to invite chaos, which will lead to the disintegration of our dear country.”
Going into history, the foremost Ijaw nationalist recalled that Nigeria had practised zoning since the pre-independence era, which saw political posts shared among the regions.
He explained: “Zoning has been practised in the nation’s policy even before Independence, when Tafawa Balewa, in 1954, was the Prime Minister, Nnamdi Azikiwe was the Governor-General. Zoning of political offices, particularly the Presidency of the country, is the best antidote to the breakup of Nigeria, and the panacea for peace and unity of the country.
“One of the reasons why the north opposed Chief Anthony Enahoro’s motion for independence in1953, was that they felt they were not equal to the South in education; that they were not in a position to produce proportional candidates who will run an independent government with the south because, at that time, they had only about 4 graduates. They subsequently walked out of the Parliament, went back to the north, and swore never to return to Lagos again. That was what led to the Constitutional Conferences held both at the Lancaster House in London and at Ibadan, Nigeria, purposely to keep Nigeria one. The impression was that no one group or section of the country should dominate the government of Nigeria at the expense of other parts of the country.”
Clark pointed out that as a result of zoning consideration, northerners did not want Jonathan to contest the 2011 election even though it was within his constitutional right to do so.
“It must be understood that the north has had the Presidency for about 45 years of our nation’s history as an independent country.”
