A former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has accused Southern Governors of issuing threats to ensure a southerner succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
The former governor on Monday urged the 17 Southern Governors to stop “ganging up” and “issuing threats” to get the 2023 Presidential slot.
Shekarau, who represents Kano Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, knocked the Southern Governors during a ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme on Channels Television.
However, the former governor, who is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, said the next President should indeed come from the Southern region of the country for all Nigerians to have a sense of belonging.
Shekarau said the actions of the Southern Governors have reduced democracy to “regional gang-up” in Nigeria, adding that the Southern Governors should have consultations within the party instead of making public declarations.
He said, “As far as the party I belong is concerned, the APC, my proposal is that now that President Buhari is from the northern part of the country and (after) he has done his eight years, let beam the searchlight to the southern part of Nigeria, not because we don’t have competent people in the north…that does not mean you are throwing away the issue of competence, credibility and so on.
“While I agree we should go for the best and therefore throw it open, regardless of which part of the country, but we must also be mindful of the aspect of the sense of belonging. We must be mindful of perception, to give some sense of belonging to every part of Nigeria.
“Where I disagree with the Southern Governors is coming together to gang up to say it must be our turn. I think this is purely a party affair.”
“We must not do this at the point of threat, that it must be me, it must be he, we need to come together. This is more of a political party issue.
“My point of disagreement with the gang-up groups like the Southern Governors is coming to gang up to say it must be our time, this is wrong, it is purely a party issue and the political parties should go into the boardrooms and sort this issue out themselves.
“Today, the Southern Governors gang up, tomorrow, another group would gang up and say it must be us.
“Governors are very prominent people in the scheme of things, they are leaders, so, they must be careful coming together to make some pronouncement that would amount to instigating the general public to take a stand and see it as a regional fight,” he said.
