A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has expressed displeasure over the statement credited to the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Mr Yerima Shettima, on the North retaining Nigeria’s presidency come 2023.
Addressing journalists last Friday in Kano, Onuesoke observed that Shettima recently granted an interview to journalists warning political leaders in the southern part of the country to stop canvassing rotation of power to the region at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in 2023, adding that it is the North’s turn to produce Buhari’s successor.
Onuesoke warned Shettima and his Arewa group to stand aloof over the issue of who becomes Nigeria’s next president, stressing that he has no political right to tell Nigerians on where the next president of Nigeria will come from.
While describing Shettima as someone who is ignorant of Nigeria’s political history and looking for cheap publicity, he cautioned him to desist from further making such political statements, adding that such utterances are tantamount to inviting disunity and violence to the peaceful co-existence of the country.
“Nigerians will not accept such a threat from Yerima Shettima. As far as Nigerians are concerned, he is a political jobber seeking for attention, and he won’t get it. He is not one of the Northern political elites. There are reasonable and responsible elites in the country who can speak on this matter, not Shettima,” he explained.
Onuesoke argued that following the undocumented zoning principle which is also responsible for the actualization of the Buhari presidency, it is the turn of the South to occupy the Aso Villa seat come 2023.
The former Delta State governorship aspirant added that the southern part of the country supported the election of President Buhari and should be rewarded with the 2023 presidency for their support.
Onuesoke described Shettima’s claim that they have the population to sway the Presidency to the North as inappropriate, adding that he should not forget so soon that Northern presidential candidates contested against former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan and they failed woefully.
He equally recalled that even President Muhammadu Buhari contested thrice and he failed, not until he was produced by the ‘gentleman’ zoning arrangement.
“To me, I’m not an advocate of the rotational presidency but an advocate of good governance no matter where the president comes from. The Northern population which Shettima is relying on is fraudulent.
“I have a friend, who is a pilot. He has flown the length and breadth of Nigeria. The guy is at a loss as to where the 90million are hiding in the Northern part of Nigeria. He cannot understand the mystery.
“It is this kind of unresolved mystery and fraud, which has continued to fuel the agitation of progressive folks for a total overhaul and restructuring of Nigeria, which the North is viciously resisting.
“We cannot continue in this lies without resolving it. It is offensive, insulting and annoying for you to continue to throw a false and bogus population figure at my face. A figure that does not show at all in the bottom line, a figure that adds no much value to the commonwealth. Enough is Enough,” Onuesoke stated.