Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state has said that rotation of the presidency between the Northern and Southern regions of the country is unconstitutional.
Speaking at the opening session of a two-day workshop for some selected crime and political reporters in Abuja, Governor Bello stressed that what the country needs is a President of Nigeria and not of any zone.
According to him, the Nigeria of today deserves 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 desirable destination.
He further suggested that the best candidate should be allowed to emerge. One who would unify the country, solve the problems facing the country and build on the legacy that Mr President leaves behind.
Giving his position on the issue of rotational presidency, he said 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.
He added that as at the time Late President Musa Yar’dua came on board, the whole problems of the North should have been solved or when it returned to the South-South, the problems of Niger Delta should have gone.
When 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 and let political parties not limit Nigerians to who they want to elect into offices, he said.
The Governor also said it is not there in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended that the people cannot pick and choose when it suits them.
In his words, ‘if we should continue on this sentiment of rotation of presidency to this region or to that region, let’s do it perfectly in the interest of fairness, equity and justice.
Going back to 1960, Governor Bello said from Independence, Nigerians have been leading themselves and if various leaders at the national level are extrapolated, it will be discovered that all the geo-political zones as they 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, he concluded.
