Why Presidency must go back to South in 2023 – APC chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Otunba Henry Ajomale, has warned the party’s leadership against taking any decision that would contravene the unwritten agreement among leaders of the party in 2015 that power should rotate between the North and the South.

Ajomale, the immediate past State Chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), disclosed this on Wednesday while reacting to the controversy trailing the issue of zoning.

Ajomale, who was the Lagos State chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), one of the parties that merged to form the APC, said there was an agreement that the presidency would be zoned to the South after the North had completed their terms.

While dismissing the claim that the APC might field another Northerner in 2023, he said the presidency goes to the South immediately President Muhammadu Buhari completes his tenure in 2023.

“I was part of the meeting where that agreement was reached, and it will do our party a lot of good if we can keep to the terms of that agreement as anything contrary may portend doom for the APC.

“The general expectation is that after President Muhammadu Buhari must have completed his tenure in 2023, then power should rotate to the South. “It is a gentleman’s unwritten agreement, and we should be honourable by keeping to that agreement. If we do anything contrary, it will do APC a lot of incalculable damage. We in the South will not fold our hands if any group or individual attempts to derail this arrangement.

“We know what the South, especially the South West, did to ensure that Buhari emerged as the president in 2015. Before then, he had contested and lost on more than two occasions. It was when he entered into an alliance with South West leaders that it became possible for him to win the presidency. So, it will be unfair to deny the South the presidency in 2023,” he pointed out.

Also speaking on the perceived presidential ambition of the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, he said nobody can stop him from contesting if he wishes.

When asked why some members of the party were opposed to Tinubu emerging as the party’s presidential candidate, Ajomale said the reason was not known but might be due to the fact that his antagonists are also nursing presidential ambition and they feel threatened by Tinubu’s chances.

He said: “They are seriously ganging up against him but why they are doing that, nobody knows.

“I believe that Asiwaju is one of the leaders in the party and a leader in this country that cannot be denied any opportunity of contesting for any position in this country.