The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has subtly commenced 2023 presidential campaign for the political principal that partly sponsored his election as Senate President. The senate president, however, broadened his campaign base to the south west to becloud his main objective for the power shift campaign.
It was gathered that Lawan last Saturday in Yola, Adamawa State, advocated that Chief MKO Abiola, the June 12 martyr, would be more honoured if President Muhammadu Buhari hands over power to the southwest in 2023.
The senate president was said to have in a media interaction urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to give the party’s presidential ticket to the southwest in 2023.
“The president and, indeed, our party must beware of divisive elements who are now proponents of retaining power in the north beyond 2023,” Lawan was said to have warned.
Lawan, accordingly declared: “I have said it before and I believe that 2023 presidential ticket of the APC must go to the southwest. Since I made this comment last time, some members of my party have been hatching a plot to suspend me from the party but I am not moved and I will still hold my ground that power must go to the west.
“June 12 Democracy Day is a milestone in Nigeria’s history and anyone who embraces democracy in Nigeria should be proud of what Buhari has done and it takes so much courage to do.
“So many Nigerian leaders have shied away from talking or acting about it because of the controversy arising from the date and fear of being scandalized but this is what Nigerians want, respect, rule of law and honour for those who fought and bled for democracy and that is what Nigerians should remember as significant for this date.
“It was not marked to spite or contradict anyone but to celebrate the common value we share in the belief in democracy as the best form of government that would serve this country and its people. And Buhari must be praised for this day.”
However, Lawan may have lost sight with history that the issue of placating the south west with the Abiola June 12 incident was settled in 1998 into the 1999 elections when all political parties reserved the presidential ticket for the south west. That election was eventually contested by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Chief Olu Falae of the joint platform of the All Peoples Party (APP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 1999 presidential election won by Obasanjo.