A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC in Niger state Alhaji Usman Tinau Mohammed has joined the Southern Governor’s in the call for the presidency of the country to be zoned to the southern part of the country by the ruling party.

It will be recalled that Governors of states from the southern part of the country rose from their meeting held in Lagos on Monday asking for the presidency to be zoned to the South among other decisions.

Alhaji Usman Tinau Mohammed said in a chat with newsmen in Minna Niger state on Tuesday that doing so will foster peace, progress and unity of the country.

I think for equity, justice and fairness, let the south produce the next president come 2023, that is the only way justice will be seen to have been done.

He argued that zoning arrangements for both elective and appointments into offices at all levels had brought peace and stability to the system since 1999, and therefore urged all political parties in the country to respect and adhere strictly to it for

fairness and justice.

Mohammed who doubles as the Director General of the Niger state Pension Board also argued that taking the presidency to the South of the country will remove any suspicion that the north wants to cling to power forever.

As a party we must respect this zoning arrangements both at the local, state and the national levels. This is the best thing to do in a democratic system, internal democracy must be encouraged if we must move forward as a country,

he submitted.

He also suggested that Governor Abubakar Sani Bello from Niger state and the North Central geo-political zone should be picked as the vice president to a southern presidential candidate.

According to him this is because

Bello has shown capacity to deliver especially in his handling of the last membership registration /revalidation ecercise of the party and his ability to broker peace among members of the party in Ondo state prior to the Governorship election.

Mohammed said as the country prepares for a review of the 1999 constitution the position of the deputy governors should be made stronger by constitutionally providing for executive functions for the occupants of the seats.

He argued that at the moment most deputy governors are almost redundant, depending on assignments the governor gives to them, adding

this should not be so.

On his political ambition come 2023, Mohammed said he had not made up his mind but submitted that:

if the people of my constituency find me worthy of service, I will not hesitate to heed their call.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.