I won't support a northerner as president in 2023 –El-Rufai
TOPE OMOGBOLAGUN
The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he would not support a northern candidate for the presidency in 2023.
El-Rufai said this on Saturday in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service as published by The Cable.
According to him, the idea of zoning the presidential seat is necessarily not constitutional, but is based on the country's political arrangement which he believes should be respected.
The President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Retd.), is from the North.
El-Rufai said, "The southern part of the country is supposed to produce the president come 2023; I don't support a northerner to vie for the seat after President Muhammadu Buhari, based on Nigeria's political arrangement.
"That is why I came out and said that after President Buhari has been in office for eight years, no northerner should run for office. Let the southerners also have eight years.
"If you look at how I am, I don't take anyone to work with me for the zone he came from. The eligibility I look at is if who is entrusted to the public will hold it properly."
The governor, however, said he had no interest in becoming the president in 2023 and termed rumours around such as being baseless.
He added, "It has been said that I have loved the presidency since I was a minister in the FCT. This is nonsense. I do not want the Nigerian presidency. God gives power, whether you like it or not, if He wants it, He will give it to you, but I have never sought the presidency of Nigeria, no one can say I have ever sought it."
President Buhari's nephew, Mamman Daura, had earlier in an interview said he was against the zoning of the presidency.
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