Former Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has said the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua created the confusion surrounding power rotation arrangement between the North and South.
Kwankwaso made the remarks during an interview on Arise Television while defending the decision of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South.
“We believe the best way to go now is to take it to the south so that we can eliminate the confusion, the confusion that emanated from the death of our brother, our friend, Umar Musa Yar’adua. That actually introduced the confusion into the system,” he said.
He said the cleaner starting point, and the one the NDC had settled on, was the end of the Buhari administration.
“What worked now is counting from Buhari. Anybody from the south on that side of argument would say that Buhari had eight years and the south is now doing its first term. In the next one year or so, it will be four years,” he said.
Kwankwaso said northern leaders who moved to the NDC accepted the southern zoning without a fight, saying unity was more important than a long argument over regional turns.
“Almost all of us joining from the north, we accepted. There is no point in fighting,” he said.
He added that the zoning debate, no matter how loudly people argued about it, was a distraction from a bigger question about the kind of leadership Nigeria needed.
“What is key now is not presidency from the north or from the south. What is key is to have quality leadership, people who are enthusiastic, determined and committed to give the country the leadership it deserves,” he said.
Kwankwaso and Obi formally joined the NDC on May 3, defecting from the African Democratic Congress amid internal disputes.
At the party’s national convention in Abuja, the NDC formally adopted the decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South.
