Sanusi: Zoning may leave us with useless presidential candidates in 2023

Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, former Emir of Kano, has said zoning may leave Nigeria with two “useless presidential candidates” in 2023.

Currently, the issue of zoning has heated up the polity as the governors are divided along the north and south.

While Southern governors have demanded that their region should produce the next president, their northern counterparts have said rotational presidency is unconstitutional.

But speaking on an Arise Television programme, Sanusi said he has always been opposed to the idea of rotational presidency.

He said what Nigeria needs at the moment is a president who can deliver.

“I have always objected to this idea that we should focus on where the president comes from. We have got southern governors saying we want the presidency and some northern governors saying that they want it in the north. Have you noticed that nobody has given the name of what they want?” he said.

“This whole thing is to corner the presidency to one part of the country and the big masquerade will come out. And that is why at the end of the exercise, you end up as Nigeria… presented with two useless candidates. Those who want to be president should show their face either from the north or the south.

“Meanwhile, we have before us very serious issues. You have a simple issue of electronic transmission of results which is designed to make the electoral process fairer and you have people saying that they do not want it, shamelessly announcing to the country that they want to rig. Why are we not talking about these issues?

“The greatest weakness we have as a country is that we do not think. We are very smart when it comes to making money by doing our work but we do not apply critical intellect to and these guys just take the entire country for a ride.

“Give me a president from any part of the country who can deliver and we should vote for him. He is not taking the presidency to his hometown.”

Sanusi, however, noted that although he’s an advocate of less money at the centre, the governors slamming the federal government are also guilty of not distributing funds to the local government.

He said, “I don’t want to talk about this matter because it’s in court but what we need is to learn how to distribute our resources properly.

“I’m a strong advocate of less money at the centre because this puts too much concentration on money from Abuja but the bulk of this Tax problem comes from not implementing what we have.

“These governors fighting for VAT are extremely undemocratic they hold on to money meant for the local government yet keeps complaining.

“The state governors complain what federal government do to them but don’t care about what they do to the local government, thereby ignoring the constitution.

“If we really want to put in for federalism we need to respect our constitution and do it at all tiers of government then I believe our constitution can work.

“ Let’s make what we have work and we’ll see this constitution is not that bad.”

Daily Trust