Former Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State Hon. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa has warned that any attempt to alter the political arrangement that produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 will spell doom for the country in 2027.
Vatsa however warned that those flying the card of the need to abolish the present zoning arrangements in the country should have a rethink as such “shifting of goal posts at the middle of the game” will tell no good of the unity of the country.
The Frontline APC Chieftain who was reacting to the recent comments credited to a former spokesperson of Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi as saying that the rotational Presidency being practiced by Nigeria since the nascent democratic set-up in 1999 “is democratically irresponsible” in an interactive session with newsmen in Minna, the Niger state capital on Wednesday said those agitating for the abolition should wait until after 2027, and maybe when every regions must have had a shot at the Presidency.
The erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Amhadu Bello University (ABU ) Zaria, had argued in an interview that “If you are practising democracy of one man one vote you don’t talk about power going to one area or region or something. You are looking for leaders who will take us out of the woods. The search is going to be for good leadership in Nigeria, not allocating a leadership that you are talking about…”
But the former Publicity Secretary of APC in Niger state equally believed that the submission by the Elder statesman “is not only undemocratic but a joke taken too far in the interest of peace and unity of the country called Nigeria”.
Vatsa a Cousin to a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory,Abuja late Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa of blessed memories argued that rather than contemplating on abolishing the zonning arrangement, “we should be clamouring for an Igbo Presidency after 2027 for equity, justice and fairness”, stressing that “it is after every regions must have tasted the Presidency that we can begin to fly any card or come to the table to discuss on how the country can be governed”.
He pointed out that no region of the country should continue to lay claim to power saying that, “we all know the peace and stability that the zoning arrangement has brought to the country since 1999. It will therefore be selfish and unpatriotic for anybody or region to want to wrestle power with Tinubu in 2027”.
The former Commissioner,however wondered why anybody who has the interest of this country at heart should dream or be contemplating of abolishing the rotational presidency, hilighting that, “this idea did not come when former President,Major General Muhammadu Buhari destroyed the fabrics of the country for eight years”.
According to him, “despite the eight years of misery, nepotism, favouritism,ethnicity and the naked looting of the country’s Treasury by Buhari and his failed team, everywhere was quiet in the north because he is from the north.
“If a Bad leader emerges from the north, we the northerners keep quiet even when they knew very well that Buhari was destroying the economy and the unity of the country,yet they kept quiet. When we lost out in the game of power as a region, the leadership must be changed. It will not work this time around”,he declared
Vatsa however pointed out that apart from the great Sardauna of of Sokoto blessed memory who picked a Christian and a Yoruba man Sunday Awoniyi from Kogi state as his personal aide, every other leaders have personalized leadership with religion, ethnicity and nepotism as their pre-occupation in the north.
“The leaders that emerged from the north in recent times only build dynasty for their children, extended family, their friends and cronies. The poverty in the north is man made, not from God. It’s being created by our leaders and the elites so they can continue to govern the people easily unfortunately it has turned against them”.
He thereby suggested that what the north should be talking about right now is how to end the insecurity all over the region as a result of poverty and lack of education, saying, that “When the Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was telling the Yoruba’s “free Education, go to school, what were the northern leaders telling us here in the north?
Vatsa stated further that poverty occasioned by lack of education and bad governance by northern leaders over the years are largely responsible to the current insecurity everywhere in the region, warning that until the leaders stopped building dynasty for themselves with public funds and do the needful, insecurity will persist the north.
He thereby concluded that it is not possible to change the goal post in 2027, especially at the middle of the game or else it will be an invitation to anarchy in the country.
