North Has Benefitted From Power Rotation, No Reason To Stop It Now – Chidoka

Osita Chidoka, former minister of aviation, has said the north benefitted from power rotation, adding that the arrangement should be sustained.

The debate on major political parties in the country zoning the 2023 presidency has heightened.

There have been calls for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to zone their ticket to the south.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, Chidoka said Nigeria is faced with the question of whether to honour the presidency zoning arrangement between the north and the south.

The PDP member explained how the party agreed on zoning arrangements between the north and the south, which he said led to the emergence of former presidents like Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan.

“In 2019, because the PDP agreed that it was the north’s turn to do eight years, we all zoned the presidency to the north”, he stated.

“If you notice at Port Harcourt, all the 12 contestants for PDP ticket were northern and vice-president Atiku emerged as the candidate because there was an understanding that this is time for the north.”

Chidoka said the northern elites’ argument that zoning is undemocratic is not tenable, seeing as they have benefited from zoning.

He said there is no reason why zoning arrangements between the north and the south should be abandoned.

The former minister pointed out that it would be an “odd situation” if the country cannot find an Igbo person who is worthy to become president in 2023.

“In 2023, the country is now again to be confronted. Will northerners, after having benefitted and agreed to this zoning structure, now turn back to say zoning is undemocratic, zoning is not to be accepted in Nigeria, people should canvass to win an election?” he said.

“Beautiful argument on the surface of it, but it appears to me to be some form of sophistry because the country has developed a consensus that is working.

“I do not see any reason why we should dismantle that consensus that power goes north and goes south.

“It will be such an odd situation if the rest of the country does not find an Igbo man who is in sync with the Nigeria ideal and can be trusted to keep Nigeria going forward together.”