2023: El-Rufai Upsets Permutations In Tinubu’s Camp

By Editor

Expectations from Southern supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari that his successor would come from the South has received a big blow from one of the president’s key associates.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that political offices should no longer be zoned based on the informal zoning arrangement among geopolitical zones in the states and at the federal level.

Pushing the idea is bound to upset supporters of the assumed presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is believed to be one of those interested in succeeding Buhari in 2023.

The Kaduna State governor in a submission affirmed that zoning reduces the prospects for political equality as he said that qualification, competence and character should rather be emhasised.

The governor has demonstrated his disposition against zoning with his adoption of a Muslim-Muslim governorship ticket in Kaduna State in the 2019 governorship election. it is the first time since the creation of the modern Kaduna State that the ticket would not be balanced between a Christian and a Muslim in the religion sensitive state.

El-Rufai’s thoughts on abandoning zoning were made in the prologue to a book titled ‘Defeating a Determined Incumbent – The Nigerian Experience’, he contributed to a book – Power of Possibilities and Politics of Change in Nigeria – written by the Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman.

He said: “Even with our success in the 2015 elections, there is room for improvement. Barriers to political equality, such as our seemingly entrenched though informal rule for zoning candidacies according to regions of origin, need to be de-emphasised and ultimately abandoned in favour of an emphasis on qualification, competence and character.

The suggestion of abandoning zoning is coming in the wake of permutations that the 2023 presidential election will see the El-Rufai in combat against Asiwaju Tinubu who was a backbone for the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections of Buhari.

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG