2023 Presidency: It’s Southerner’s turn -Akeredolu
Akeredolu who insisted that it is the turn of the Southern part of the country to produce the next President, also believed that All progressive Congress, APC, leadership should have no difficulty in making pronouncement on such important issue, just as it fixed various fees for the purchase of forms.
In a statement he personally issued yesterday and entitled, “Our party, APC, must tread the path of equity,” stressed that it would be disingenuous for anyone to argue against rotation at this period.
He challenged the leadership of the APC to take a stand on the matter without further delay, saying “we must not keep our party men and women guessing on the position of the leadership of the party”.
He explained that the principle of Federal Character is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, as amended, adding that the party should not consider throwing the contest open.
The current democratic dispensation is anchored on the unwritten convention driven by a principle of Equity. Political expediency dictates, more appealingly, that while adhering to the spirit and letters of the laws guiding conduct of elections and succession to political offices, we must do nothing which is capable of tilting the delicate balance against the established arrangement which guarantees peace and promotes trust.
Our party just elected officers on the established principle of giving every part of the country an important stake in the political calculus. The focus has now shifted to the process which will culminate in the participation of our party in the general elections scheduled for next year. All lovers of peace and freedom must do everything to eschew tendencies which may predispose them to taking decisions which promote distrust and lead to a crisis, the end of which nobody may be able to predict.
The leadership of the party ensured that the principle of rotational representation guided its decision at the just-concluded Convention. The party Chairmanship position has gone to the North. All other offices have been filled on this understanding. This is the time the leaders of the party must make a categorical statement, devoid of equivocation, on the pattern of succession.
The party Executive Committee has fixed a fee for the purchase of the nomination form for the office. It is expected, fervently, that it will proceed to complete the process by limiting the propensities for disagreement to a region for possible micro-management. It is very expedient that we avoid self-inflicted
crises before the general elections.
It is the turn of the Southern part of the country to produce the next President. The party leadership should have no difficulty in making pronouncement on this very important issue, just as it has fixed various fees for the purchase of forms. This must be done without delay. The principle of Federal Character is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, as amended. It will be disingenuous for anyone to argue against rotation at this period.
We must not keep our party men and women guessing on the position of the leadership of the party. This is the time to weigh in and take control of the process. No statement must suggest, even remotely, that the party harbours certain sentiments which may predispose it to consider throwing the contest open. This is certainly not the time for equivocation. EQUITY DICTATES THAT WE TAKE A STAND”, the Governor emphasised.
Meanwhile, two renowned constitutional lawyers have thrown their weight behind the position of Governor Akeredolu, saying nothing should stop the Southern part of the country from producing the next President.
Speaking in separate interviews with The Hope yesterday, the two legal practitioners, Dr. Tunji Abayomi and Dr. Kayode Ajulo, unanimously said they are fully in support of the position of the Governor in the interest of unity, peace, equity, justice and fairness.
Abayomi who explained that though zoning is not in the constitution, the concept of the Federal Character is to ensure that there is some level of rotation in the country.
To avoid confusion as well as to improve on unity within the party, accommodation of zoning/rotation becomes mandatory. I believe that is also the intention of the Federal Character concept to ensure that there is some level of rotation.
If you don’t abide by that the problem is, the Southerners will say that when it was beneficial for the Northern aspirants they stuck to zoning and insisted on it and it worked for them. And now that it is going to be beneficial for the Southern aspirants they are now contesting it and raising issues. I think that is really the issue which, in a sense, touches on unfairness,” the legal icon added.
On his part, former National Secretary of Labour Party, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, lauded Governor Akeredolu for providing leadership in the Southern Nigeria, saying that the Governor has always been on the side of the poeple and believed in egalitarian society, equity and the rule of law.
We thank God for giving us a governor like Akeredolu who is not only a governor but a learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria that has shown courage and tried as much as possible that we have an egalitarian society in Nigeria.
Egalitarian itself is about equity, it is about justice, it is about equal opportunity. If the Northern part of the country can have eight years, that equal opportunity demands that there should be a rotation back to the South.
Anything beyond what we are saying amounts to injustice. So I’m fully in support of the governor. His position on every national issue has always been on the side of the people, on the side of justice, social justice and the rule of law,” he added.
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