The Northern Elders Forum yesterday declared that the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, cannot replace President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 should anything happen to Buhari, who has been abroad for medical check-up.
Chairman of Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, said should Buhari fail to seek re-election in 2019, the North must retain the presidency by fielding a candidate through the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, party.
Abdullahi said although Professor Osinbajo, according to the Constitution, should be allowed to complete the current tenure being Vice President to Buhari, he must not contest in 2019 should Buhari fail to re-contest for a second term.
“The constitutional provision says that in the event that the President dies in office or becomes incapacitated for one reason or the other and cannot perform the duties of his office, he will be succeeded by the Vice President.
“But no one is in a position to know at what point he is going to recover fully and come back to office, or whether the unexpected could happen. The Northern elders insist that Osinbajo cannot replace Buhari in 2019.
“If the worst case scenario happens, and Buhari is not back on seat, the Constitution is very clear that the Vice President takes over. And what we then expect is that he will take that tenure to its logical end and from there, the politics of power sharing will take precedence over anything else,” Abdullahi said.
He also said that, “When the unexpected happens, in 2019, we will be back to our position that the North should be treated equitably and fairly. And we expect that another northern candidate will emerge as presidential candidate on the platform of APC.” (Nigerian Pilot)
Hmmmmm! Highly contentious declaration but I deem it just an intellectual opinion which probably does not fit in with the Northern consensus. Question again is, what does the constitution say? The constitution is what needs to be implemented rather than muddying already muddied tribalistic and ethnocentric ideologies snapped from the professor’s ‘mind-map’. I think our elders need time to reflect and retrospect about things ‘Nigeria’. It is a modern era and ‘free-agers’ in our midst will not be dictated to so authoritatively in the guise of equity and fair-play. The joint leadership, as it is now, is yielding desired results, even if it is ‘slow’ to satisfy some high hopes. We need to be sanely measured with views and opinions as these traverse across disjointed balance.
It is very unfortunate that we burrow after the American democracy but will not follows its due process due to our lack of sincerity, integrity and maturity. Democracy is the rule of the people by the people. Not the rule of the people by a cabal.
We are too selfish, arrogant and ethnically biased that we are blinded to merit, integrity and the common good.
If Osinbajo is performing well, what stops him from seeking his own mandate from the people in a free and fair society?
Please I want to ask the so called Professor – If you now say another candidate from the North should contest in 2019 to take the second term of Buhari because the term belongs to the North, Will you be ready to relinquish the post after a single 4 -year tenure because the North will no longer be qualified having spent 8(2015 -2023) years to contest based on principles of equity and fairness which you are propounding.
What is even equitable in our national experience is that the North should relax and give others the chance to lead because overall, they have held the leadership of this country more than all the ethnic groups put together(either military government or civilian). The groups that can canvas equity as a reason for their right to Presidency in this country are the Igbos and the SOUTHERN Minorities if we are to be sincere.
May God deliver us from ethnic jingoism in this country. God bless Nigeria.
It is happening in all facets of our life as a nation and that its why we are where we are as a nation. Juwon.
My dear “Professor” Ango Abdullahi, your thoughts may sound good and pliable in the way your party, APC, has constituted their by-laws; but that is not what the “Nigerian” constitution says.
Now, if you can seduce and carouse “Professor” Osinbajo (the Vice President) and the rest of his gang to agree with your views or the views of the Northern Elders Forum…then, that is politics. But do not expect the rest of Nigeria especially, those that do not belong in your party to agree with you.
It would really help us if you applied the tenets of your professorship to solving some of these intractable problems in Nigeria…instead of creating them or making it worse.
Cash Ezimako