ON PLANNED 2023 PRESIDENCY FOR SOUTH WEST - Fani-Kayode said restructuring or separation is the solution to Nigeria’s multi-faceted problems.
A stalwart of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Mr Femi Fani-Kayode has berated the position of the Senate President Ahmed Lawan on the planned 2023 presidency for the South West.
In an interview with journalists in Yola, Adamawa state, the new President of the Senate had said power shift to the South-west in 2023 would be the best honour that can be bestowed on the late Chief MKO Abiola.
Late MKO Abiola, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was the acclaimed winner of the June 12 1993 Presidential election which was annulled by former military President Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
He was arrested by a former military dictator, Late Gen. Sani Abacha and died in detention on July 7, 1998.
A public holiday, June 12, had been declared in his honour and awarded national honour posthumously.
While there was raging controversy about the National Stadium, Abuja, which was renamed after the late business mogul turned politician, Lawan stated that MKO Abiola deserved more, one of such is to console the South West with the 2023 presidential ticket.
Reacting on the development, Fani-Kayode said restructuring or separation is the solution to Nigeria’s multi-faceted problems.
“The solution to our problems is not a power shift but restructuring or separation. Even if you shift power between the north and south for the next 100 years it means nothing. As long as some regard themselves as the master race and others as their slaves nothing will change.
“We are not interested in sharing power with the north: we are interested in winning our freedom from them,” he tweeted.
There have been public debates, even before the 2019 elections were held, that the South East should be given the 2023 presidential ticket.
South-East which is predominantly Igbos have has cried over marginalisation since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999.
The latest statement by Lawan calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to take a step further by handing over the 2023 presidential ticket to the South-west could mean that the South East region should bury the idea of occupying Aso Rock in 2023.
Lawan, who is from Yobe had said, “The president and indeed our party must beware of divisive elements who are now proponents of retaining power in the north beyond 2023”.
He said giving the 2023 ticket to the South West would be another honour on the Late MKO Abiola.
Lawan’s position has sparked hundreds of controversies on social media.
Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led which has always advocated for the secession of the region from Nigeria was yet to react at the time of filing this report.
