Igbo 2023 presidency: Ngige says APC has no arrangement for zoning, Sagay disagrees
- Labour and employment minister, Chris Ngige, said the APC constitution does not recognise presidential zoning, adding that it only talks about rotation
- Ngige added that the southeast must work hard and negotiate with other zones if it wants to get the 2023 presidency
- However, Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) disagreed with the labour minister, saying there is a convention among all political parties that power should rotate between the north and the south
- Sagay insisted that after Buhari's second term, it is the turn of the southeast, southwest, and the south-south to produce president
The minister of labour and employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the Igbo must work hard and negotiate with other zones to achieve its 2023 presidential ambition.
Ngige said the All Progressives Congress (APC) constitution only talks about rotation, not zoning.
In an interview with the Nation, he said: “APC has no arrangement for zoning in its constitution and none of the parties has. Our constitution talks about rotation and it says the rotation is between the north and south.
“We expect going forward, that all political parties should come to the south to pick their presidential candidates. We think Ndigbo should be favoured because we have not tasted it, but power is not served à la carte.”
Ngige, therefore, advised Ndigbo to join the ruling party to achieve their dream of having an Igbo president in 2023.
“You cannot get the 2023 presidency through threats like some of our people are currently doing, but through negotiations with our friends in the west," he said.
However, Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) said there is a convention among all political parties that power should rotate between the north and the south.
Sagay who is the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said that based on the convention, all presidential candidates should come from the south in 2023, adding that the zoning arrangement has come to stay.
According to him, when a northerner rules for eight years, a southerner would take over.
He said if President Muhammadu Buhari completes his second term in 2023, it will be the turn of the southwest, southeast and the south-south to produce the president.
“It is not possible for any northerner to aspire to be the presidential candidate of APC or any other political parties in 2023.
“All the presidential candidates would come from the south. Anyone advocating anything to the contrary is mischievous and out to destroy the party,” Sagay said.
He further explained that an established convention can overrule the law because it has become law.
According to him, zoning is a political arrangement put it in place to remove the fear of domination among the constituents.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that prominent Nigerians insisted that the nation’s highest political office should go to the southeast in 2023.
It was reported that the former head of Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Nigerian Army, Major-Gen Ishola Williams, said supporting the southeast to produce President Buhari’s successor in 2023 was the right thing to do.
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Source: Legit.ng
