By Mus’ab Ibrahim, Kano
The leadership of Arewa Youth Federation has revealed that the misguided statement credited to the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, laying claim to an existing gentleman agreement to cede political power, especially the Presidency to the Southwest region come 2023 was nothing but an attempt intended to blackmail, mislead and hoodwinked Nigerians into believing his malicious falsehood with the intention of intimidating the North to give up it’s right to aspire for the Presidency in the 2023 general election.
This was contained in a statement signed and issued by the President Arewa Youth Foundation Comrade Adamu Kabir Matazu.
According to the statement the youths of Nigeria have wise up and are politically conscious of happenings in Nigeria and around the globe as such will not accept the idea of few people gathering to discuss and decide the future political arrangement of Nigeria for their selfish interests without recourse to the yearnings and aspirations of the vast majority of Nigerian citizens.
It added that, Fashola is still playing the same old tactics and scripts played by NADECO which made it possible for the Southwest to intimidate other regions of the country to give up their rights to aspire for the Presidency in 1999 through sustained propaganda and blackmail.
“We wish to state that the era of using subtle blackmail to get the Presidency on a platter of gold is gone and never shall return. The idea of zoning and rotation of the Presidency to a particular individual, region or ethnic group is dead and buried. In fact, zoning breeds mediocrity, its undemocratic and abhors merit,’ it said.
The statement further stated that if at all Fashola’s argument is born out of a patriotic desire to pursue the course of justice, equity and fairness, and is anchored towards giving all the Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones a sense of belonging and equal opportunity in the scheme of things then Southwest geopolitical zone lacks the moral right and locus stand to demand for the Presidency to be zoned to their region after having a fair share of 8 years through President Olusegun Obasanjo during Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in the fourth republic.
“We make bold to state without any iota of doubt or fear of contradiction that Fashola’s intent on canvassing for zoning the Presidency to the Southwest is to appease his political godfather Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is a spent horse and expired politician,” said the statement.
