A former Commissioner for Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua has warned that danger lies ahead if some powerbrokers attempt to foist a president of northern extraction on Nigerians in 2027.
The chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in an article titled ‘2027: The North And The Rest Of Us’ said after former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner from Katsina state has completed his eight-year term from 2015 to 2023, the wisest thing to do is to allow a Southerner rule from 2023 till 2031.
Going down memory lane, Afegbua also argued that the North cannot produce the president alone without the support of the South and vice-versa, citing the failed attempts by Buhari in 2003, 2007 and 2011 to win the presidential election despite his huge popularity in the north.
He said “The whispers about gambits being hatched in and by the North to produce the president in 2027, and alter the algorithm of power that guarantees balancing the wheel of power rotation, is suffusing the air. It portends to be a deleterious move that can set us all back. It would seem too propitious that we heed and apply wisdom by allowing the South a full eight year turn, rather than allow the upset that meddling with the current flow could bring, on several levels”.
“After President Buhari’s eight-year tenure, the natural thing is to allow the South complete an uninterrupted eight years to balance the rotation. The word that the North is plotting a comeback in 2027 is not only daunting; it actually offends the sensibilities of the South”.
“It is apocryphal. Indeed it would be vexatious for any aspirant from the North to even attempt contesting when the South has not completed its turn. Moreover, if the rhythm of politics of rotation is altered, it would be tantamount to burning the bridges of the understanding that should naturally sustain the pillars of stability of our country. A Northern president in 2027 launched by way of whatever platform or ideology, could set us at odds and put us in retrograde”.
“We should be aiming at going away from this North-South dichotomy or polemic, and see ourselves as one, evincing palpable equity and justice, if we truly want to sustain national politics of homogeneity, driven by a deliberate and genuine desire to help deepen our politics for national progress, prosperity, and unity”.
“The South must be allowed to complete its turn of at least eight years, till 2031. Thereafter, it will be the turn of the North to succeed the government of the day. Those who are fanning the embers of discord by massing around political players should better revisit their thoughts, to avoid polarisation in an already delicate situation”.
“Any thought about 2027 and the North plotting a comeback should be spurned, as anything too hot to handle, to avoid any implosion. Such plots would be a direct insult to the South by every measure. The gossamer peace that presently exists in the country should be enriched by action, to give birth to entrenched democratic culture of rotational presidency, that would expunge the citizenry’s dissonance”.
“Give the South a chance to complete its own eight-year tenure without provocation. Trying to stage a comeback looks precarious. Let us espouse equity, fairness and wisdom”.
