Yarima: I’m fully in 2023 presidential race

A former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Sani Yarima, has said Northern politicians have the right to contest the 2023 presidential poll.

Governors of the 17 Southern states had on Monday, during their meeting in Lagos, unanimously agreed that the next President of Nigeria should emerge from their region, puncturing the ambition of prominent politicians from the North.

• How angry parents chased El-Rufai’s commissioner over fresh abductions
• Army major shot dead in Jigawa

But in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, Yarima said it was wrong for anyone to agitate for power shift to his region.

The former governor said he is fully in the 2023 presidential race, adding that coming from the same North-West geo-political zone with President Muhammadu Buhari, whose tenure elapses in 2023, is not a threat to his political ambition.

“I’m in the race, I have already declared my intention and I’m mobilising by the grace of God. At least, Mr. President won the election with a little above 15 million and I assure you, before I even declare officially, I would have had 20 million supporters,” he said.