A former Minister of Education, Alhaji Dauda Birma, has said that the presidency can remain in the North beyond 2023 if the South does not show the needed seriousness.
According to him the Presidency can only move to the South if the region fights for it.
The elder statesman, in an interview with the Sun, noted that political power is not given on a platter of gold.
The Sarkin Gabas Adamawa said, “My view about 2023 is that we have become accustomed to the rotation of power between the North and the South; left to me, I will say that the South should set their home in order and rally round a political party that is going to nominate somebody from the South to succeed President Buhari.
“You know politics is such that nobody gives you anything on a platter of gold, you have to work for it and you have to earn it.
“For people to say that they are entitled to something doesn’t make political sense, therefore, the South should come together and agree with each other and promote a candidate they would support, and it is incumbent on the North on the basis of fair play to support that person, but if they fail to do that, we are not going to leave a vacuum, somebody from the North has to occupy that post.
“If you go back to the time when Abiola became a candidate, he went all over Nigeria–East, West, Central, North, everywhere–and he won an election that was annulled, which precipitated a crisis.
“We realised that we could not afford such crisis, and conceding to his area assuaged it. Therefore, much as I believe that there shouldn’t be micro-zoning, the Southeast is entitled, but the South must fight for it.
“If they [South] don’t fight for it, nobody will travel several hundreds of kilometre from the North to the South to tell them, ‘we are very sorry, tell us who to give the power.’ No, somebody has to work for it; somebody has to identify himself. People must come round somebody.
“For instance, if I were from the Southeast, if I were a politician operating there, I will take somebody like former Senate President, Ken Nnamani to be supported because there are certain people whose behaviour, whose track record, whose performance in the past endeared them to people who are even not from their area, but there must be a consensus.
“The Southeast must build a consensus; they must talk with the Southwest, South-South. If you are operating politics from the position of antagonism, it doesn’t get you anywhere.
“Whether we like it or not, 2023 will come, and when it comes it is up for the person who is prepared for it to take advantage of it. Anybody who is not prepared would be left shouting, screaming and kicking and Nigeria will have to be going even if a crisis is precipitated.
“So, for anybody to say that it is my entitlement and let people come and kneel before me and give it to me, that would not happen. People must fight for what they want and they must earn what they get in a contest in which several people are interested.”
