2023: It’s unjust for North to retain power – Yakasai

Elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, has said it will be unjust for the North to still take a shot at the presidency in 2023 despite the agitations for power shift to the South at the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. 

Daily Trust reports that there is a heated debate among stakeholders in the nation’s polity about power rotation between the North and the South, especially with regards to 2023. 

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A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal; and a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, are some of the politicians from the North eyeing Buhari’s seat.

Yakasai told Daily Trust yesterday that while he was not a card-carrying member of any political party, he remained a politician and believed it would be injustice to the South for a Northerner to replace President Buhari in 2023.

He said, “How can it be that it is always we the Northerners that will rule? There is no justice in this matter, we rule, they (South) rule that is justice.

“Even though we didn’t do much in all the years that the Northerners ruled, what will we say to the people? What will we show to the citizens of Nigeria that they benefited or will benefit in order for them to give us their votes?

 “In these six to seven years, what have we done? What achievement have we accomplished that helped in the development of the country, its economy or any other development that helps the people? What major achievement do we have that we can use in order to call upon all other Nigerians to give us their votes?

 “Because of that, my opinion is, when Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure is over, the North should stop. He (Buhari) is finishing his eight-year tenure, and how can another Northerner contest and also go for another eight years, since each term is four years and it’s allowed to run twice? Honestly, this is not justice.”

 He further said his interest in politics from the beginning had always been about justice, adding that concerning his support for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, “I wanted to make sure we went with the method of letting any president to run his second tenure after his first; just like I said earlier.

 “If the first four years of the tenure are not enough for the president to accomplish his goals, then eight years will be enough for him as long as he has the plan on how to accomplish them.”

 Yakasai said of all the aspirants from the South, the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was the most qualified based on his footprints in the development of Lagos State.