As the 2023 general elections draw closer, there are concerns in some quarters as to the seriousness of the South West geo-political zone to vie for the presidential ticket. TOPE SUNDAY reports.
Less than two years to the 2023 general elections, there are still concerns in certain quarters on the readiness of the South-west geo-political zone to clinch the presidency. As at the time of filing in this report, a former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the only presidential aspirant,whose supporters are rooting for.
Agitations
Less than a year into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, in July 2020, the people of the South-west region of the country through a pan socio-cultural group, the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), declared that the Yoruba nation was ready to take over from President Buhari, come 2023, and called on prominent Yoruba leaders to urgently address the division among its ranks to ensure that the region clinches the presidential ticket.
The body’s publicity secretary in Ekiti state, Prince Michael Ogungbemi, who spoke with journalists, said the zone has both the human and material resources to prosecute its ambition, and asked the political leaders of the Yoruba nation to embark on consultations with a view to clinching the Presidency.
The South-west region, which is in contention for the 2023 presidential ticket, is reportedly claiming that it had an unwritten agreement with the North when the APC was formed to take over from President Buhari after his eight years in office.
Also, the South-south, and South-east geo-political zones are also clamouring for the one seat of the country.
Arrangements, alignments
In the last couple of weeks, the debate over zoning of the presidency in 2023 has been on the increase. The new trend is being championed by southerners in the two dominant political parties, the ruling APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Though the APC is yet to conduct its National Delegates Conference, it has a northerner, who is the current governor of Yobe state, Ma Mai Mala Buni, as the caretaker committee chairman.
Also, the leading opposition party, the PDP, recently elected a northerner, a former President of the Senate, Dr. Iyorcha Ayu, as its national chairman.
With this development, and coupled with the gentleman agreement that has been in existence since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, the presidential candidate of a party cannot emerge from the same region as the national chairman of the same party.
According to pundits, the arrangements in the APC and PDP, though not legally backed, are a blessing to the south except any last minute change.
Tinubu, Osinbajo pulling stuffs
In the entire South-west, Tinubu according to reports, though he has not officially declared to run for president, is enjoying the support of his supporters and some of his mentees. Also, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is reportedly eyeing the presidential seat.
The governor of Ekiti state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, is also said to be nursing the presidential ambition, though there is no official statement from his media team to either confirm the speculation or deny it. Also, his immediate predecessor, Ayo Fayose of the PDP, was also said to be interested in the race.
But staunch supporters of Tinubu, on December 16, 2020, in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, inaugurated a presidential campaign movement tagged, ‘The South-West Agenda for him in readiness for the 2023 presidency.
Speaking at the event, Adeyeye said: “We are asking him (Tinubu) to come out and we are asking the entire people of the South-west to rally round him to make him the next president of Nigeria. Every geo-political zone in the South has the right to produce a candidate, but the one that works harder would emerge. Don’t forget, all the citizens of Nigeria will vote to choose the next president.”
Also, in June this year, a political initiative, the Progressive Consolidation Group (PCG), asked Osinbajo to contest in the 2023 presidential election. The group in a statement by its coordinator and secretary, Ahmed Mohammed and Eberechukwu Eli Dibia, said he would perform excellently as the president. But he has not accepted the offer or rejected it.
Opposition’s graveyard silence
While the former governor of Lagos state Tinubu’s loyalists are rooting for him, others like the Governor Fayemi, who was endorsed to run president in 2023, are silent on their aspirations.
As at the time of filing in this report, three members of the APC from the south west are being touted for presidency; Tinubu and Fayemi, Osibanjo. However, while there is a graveyard silence from Fayemi, the people are rooting in a very low voice for the vice president.
But the opposition members from the region aside Fayose who was reported to have said he may contest the presidency, there is no member of the opposition from the South West geo-political zone that has declared intention to run for the office of the president.
However, an Analyst, Akintayo Adejoro, who spoke with this reporter, expressed disappointment over the number of the candidates that are reportedly nursing the presidential ambition from the South-west, saying the development may serve as an obstacle to the realisation of a Yoruba presidency in 2023.
He said, “I am not too happy with what is going on in the Yoruba land as regards the 2023 presidential election. Imagine, about three to four prominent Yoruba sons are said to be nursing the presidential ambition. In terms of the number, it is not too good because they should have reduced it to at least one or two. The development means that we as Yoruba are not ready for the presidency because why are we having some of our prominent leaders now interested in the contest. Are they considering the fact that if they go to the primaries against a sole aspirant from the North, they will lose because their own votes who split?”
But, the national coordinator of Buhari/Osinbajo Support Group, Mr. Ebunola Martins, asked Tinubu and other presidential hopefuls to concede the ticket to the South-east in the spirit of fairness and justice.
Martins, while speaking on Arise TV during the week, said: “My opinion is that South-west should concede the 2023 presidential ticket to the South-east in the spirit of fairness and justice.”
