The battle for 2023 presidential election has commenced in earnest with arrays of power brokers throwing missiles of words to each other in the ruling All Progressive Congresss( APC). The motive is to set each region against one other, for the realization of their ill-fated motives but, forgetting that winning a presidential election requires absolute unity across all geopolitical zones.
Shehu Sani, a former senator representing Kaduna central is one of the most liberal northern leaders in recent time. His utterances are often genuine and realistic owning to his large scale exposure to international best practice in political space of most developed countries.
Unlike, most northern leaders whose utterances is negating zoning of the presidential election to the Southwest, Sani is of the opinion that power must shift to Yoruba land for the role they played in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019 respectively.
For Sani, he does not believes that, the demographic advantage as well as the geographic distribution of the Northern Nigeria should be used as a paraphernalia to outsmart the South most especially, the Southwest. But, instead, challenged the South to be united, as 2023 is exclusively a southern affair.
“What I will say is that there is a possibility of producing a northerner as president in 2023 if the South-East and South-west remain divided in their resolve on the governance of the country. It is this division that would be exploited by those proposing the issue of competence”
This is equally the same path, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, might be driving at, during the 2019 general election campaign. The Vice President tasked, Yorubas to be very supportive of President Buhari’s reelection. His words and utterances echoed a great assurance that the region will get the ticket on a platter of Gold daring the fact that some other regions might be insatiable.
But however, to those that have been following the political trajectory would agree that, the Former Lagos State Governor, between 1999-2007 have been captured on the social media as some support groups have continued to push for his presidency using media. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is equally, the national leader of the All Progressive Congress is one of the most successful power brokers that is eligible to contest for the top seat from the Southwest.
More reason why the northern elites are frowned at his intention is as a result of his excellence in his political sojourn. The Lagos demi-god is a strategist who see the future ahead. He’s predictability skills is what distinguished him from most modern day politicians.
Even though, his overbearing influence in Southwest and national affairs continues to create more enemies for him, there is an unpopular resolve that, Asiwaju is up to something.
As a core pan Yoruba nationalist, that has produced several leaders in Lagos, and at the federal level, he might be playing a game to impose his ally from the Southwest as the next president.
For the sake of political discuss, Tinubu’s religion affiliation remains one of his biggest set-back that might make his general acceptance difficult. As a Muslim from the South, there is much difficulty to see a Christian politician from the Muslim dominated Northern politics to deputize him.
The 1993 election that was experienced in the country where a Muslim-Muslim ticket played out might be impossible today as the inhabitants of the country have become more enlightened and sensitive about the magnitude of religion in contemporary politics. For example, the country had undergone various ethno-religion crisis which might be impossible for a Muslim- Muslim ticket to fly.
The bitter truth is that; the north can never field a Christian vice president to deputize Bola Tinubu. Even if the hurdle would shift to Southwest, it is only going to be in favor of a Christian, while the north field a Muslim vice president for religious balancing. And as a schemer and strategist, Tinubu might be paving ways for a Southwest presidency even if certain national condition(s) might serve as impediment to his presidential ambition.
From the recently concluded 2019 general election, records showed that the Northwest gave the president the highest numbers of votes ahead of other region. Such development might be the reason why the Governor of Kaduna State have kicked against zoning, with an ulterior motive that, the North can produce another president without the support of the Southwest.
These disparities in view must be tame before it escalates into serious problem. The Southwest would view herself as being cheated because of her sacrifice for the emergence of president Muhammadu Buhari especially during the 2015 election.
This might be what the Southeast and Southwest groups envisaged to predict imminent dangers in the polity of the country. They insisted that, the country might be heading towards another set of internal unrest which has continued to resurfaced on periodical basis. God forbid!
These dangers among others, can be avoided, as we forward looking to 2023.
Gbadebo Adeagbo writes from Ado Ekiti.
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