****APC Chieftain tackles Prof. Ango Abdullahi on rotational presidency comments
By our reporter in Minna
Former commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state Hon. Jonathan Vatsa has warned that any attempt to alter the political arrangement that produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 will spell doom for the country in 2027.
He specifically warned that those flying the kite of the need to abolish the current zoning arrangements in the country should have a rethink as such “shifting of goal post at the middle of the game” will tell negatively on the unity of the country.
The APC Chieftain was reacting to the recent comments credited to the former spokesperson of Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi as saying that the rotational presidency being practice by Nigeria since 1999 “is democratically irresponsible”.
During an interactive session with newsmen in Minna, the Niger state capital Vatsa said those planning to put stumbling blocks in the wheels of the rational arrangement should wait after 2027, and maybe until when every region must have had a shot at it.
The former Vice Chancellor of the ABU Zaria had argued in an interview that “If you are practising democracy of one man one vote you don’t talk about power going to one area or region or something.
“You are looking for leaders who will take us out of the woods. The search is going to be for good leadership in Nigeria, not allocating a leadership that you are talking about…”
But the former publicity secretary of APC in Niger state equally believe that the submission by the Elder statesman “is not only undemocratic but a joke taken too far for the interest of peace and unity of the country called Nigeria”.
Vatsa argued that rather than contemplating the abolition of the zoning arrangement, “we should be clamoring for an Ibo presidency after 2027 for equity, justice and fairness”, adding that “it is after everything region had tested the presidency that we can begin to fly any card or come to the table to discuss on how the country can be governed”.
He pointed out that no region of the country should continue to lay claim to power saying that “we all know the peace and stability that the zoning arrangement has brought to the country since 1999. It will therefore be selfish and unpatriotic for anybody or region to want to wrest power from Tinubu in 2027”.
The former commissioner wondered why anybody who has the interest of this country at heart would dream or contemplate the abolition of the rotational presidency, adding that “this idea did not come when former president Muhammadu Buhari destroyed the fabric of the country for eight years”.
According to him despite the eight years of misery, nepotism, ethnicity and the naked looting of the country Treasury by Buhari and his failed team, everywhere was quite in the north because he is from the north.
“If a Bad leader emerges from the north, the northerners keep quiet even when they knew very well that Buhari was destroying the economy and the unity of the country they kept quiet.
“When we loose out in the game of power as a region, the leadership must be changed. It will not work this time around”.
Vatsa pointed out that apart from the great Sardauna of blessed memory who picked a Christian and a Yoruba man Sunday Awoniyi from Kogi state as his personal aide, every other leaders have personalized leadership with religion, ethnicity and nepotism as their pre-occupation in the north.
“The leaders that emerged from the north in recent times only build dynasty for their children, extended family, their friends and cronies. “The poverty in the north is man made, not from God. It’s being created by our leaders and the elites so they can continue to govern the people easily unfortunately it has turned against them”.
He suggested that what the north should be talking about right now is how to end the insecurity all over the region as a result of poverty and lack of education, stressing that “When Chief Obafemi Awolowo was telling the yoruba’s “free education, go to school, what were the northern leaders telling us here in the north?
Vatsa stated further that poverty occasioned by lack of education and bad governance by northern leaders over the years are largely responsible for the current insecurity everywhere in the region, warning that until the leaders stopped building dynastiez for themselves with public funds and do the needful, insecurity will persist the north.
He concluded that it is not possible to change the goal post in 2027, especially at the middle of the game or else it will be an invitation to anarchy in the country.
