(Minna)
Former Governor of Niger state, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has urged Nigerians not to crucify Mamman Daura over his dismissal of zoning the Nigerian presidency in 2023,in the interview he granted BBC Hausa service recently.
Aliyu gave the advice on Saturday when he spoke with journalists in Minna.
The former governor,who said he had gone through the content of the interview, said he believed that Daura should not be crucified “because it is obvious that after over 20 years of experiment, the zoning arrangements have failed to produce the desire result.”
According to him, Daura’s comment on the zoning come 2023 is just a suggestion of a way out after, over 20 years of experiment of a system.
He said: “I think what he is saying is that, after over 20 years, has the zoning rarely produced the best for the country. In the process, are we not just producing a northern president, a southern president or a possible south east president.”
“Whatever system you have, you have an objective to achieve. After over 20 years of zoning arrangements, have we rarely produced the best for the country.
“We have zoning from 1999 to date because we want unity and we want every part of the country to have sense of belonging. We want Nigeria as one, so the zoning makes it obvious that everybody will be able to participate but has it given us what we wanted?.
“For me, I think Mamman Daura is simply saying, we have had zoning three times, why don’t we look at something else, shouldn’t we move to another stage and see what happens because if you said it is my turn, it doesn’t rarely make you look for that thing.”
He described Daura’s comment “it’s like flying kite, adding that “whether you zone it or not, election is about the number of votes you are able to gather, so let the people determine what happens in 2023.
“To me, I think the society should determine what they want and how to get it.”
Citing US politics, Aliyu noted that two contagious states had produced both the president and the Vice President because they had reached that level to say we don’t need that zoning, let the best come from anywhere.”
The immediate past governor of the state, however, admitted that zoning “is not a one day thing. stressing that “It is not the process itself that is just competent, it is the honesty of the people.”
In the said interview, Daura, an elder statesman and nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari, was said to have argued that competence, not geography, should determine the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
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