2023 Presidency: Northern Nigeria Should Retain Power – Governor Mohammed

A file photo of Governor Bala Mohammed.

Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, is advocating for the northern part of Nigeria to retain power in 2023.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who swept to power in 2015, would have governed Nigeria for eight years by 2023, a situation that has generated concerns as to which geo-political zone would produce the next President.

Although the dominant political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have not zoned the presidency to any region, there have been agitations that the South be given the ticket. But Governor Mohammed, who said he is aware of the agitation, insisted that the North-East should be given the presidential slot for the sake of equity and justice.

“We are aware of the agitation of the southern part of the country because of the tenure of the leader, President Muhammadu Buhari who is from the North and will be finishing his tenure in 2023,” he said in Bauchi while receiving the progress report of the Contact Committee on his presidential ambition.

“I want to seize the opportunity to say that I am in PDP, I am not in the APC. It is the APC that has this burden. In my party, the last President was from the South. He was my President, Goodluck Jonathan. During the period my party was at the centre for 16 years, 14 of these years were led by the people from the South.

“So where is the justice and justification? So it is the time of the North. When you come to the North, North-East and South-East have not been there for too long, only a short stint compared to other zones.

“We should be given the opportunity. This Presidency, if it wants to be just and equitable to Nigerians, should be open to everybody from other sections of this country so that Nigerians can be given the opportunity to elect the best that can provide solution.”