No northerner should vie for presidency in 2023, El-Rufai restates position

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, said on Saturday he would not support a northern candidate for the presidency in 2023.

El-Rufai has publicly expressed this position at least two times prior.

El-Rufai, who disclosed this in a chat with the Hausa Service of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), said the zoning of the presidency was not necessarily constitutional, but the idea should be respected based on the country’s political arrangement.

The governor, however, dismissed insinuations he was eyeing the presidency in three years’ time.

The claim, according to him, was baseless.

President Muhammadu Buhari will complete his second term of four years in 2023.

READ ALSO: El-Rufai confirms feud with Tinubu, says ‘he’s not my man’

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.”

“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.”

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