Elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai has said cabals in the presidency are encouraging some aspirants from the South to contest the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Yakassai claimed the reason was to break the clamour for the ruling party to zone its presidential ticket to the South and for a southern presidential candidate to emerge.
He added that the cabals are trying everything possible to ensure that the North retains power in 2023 and the APC does not zone its ticket to the South.
Yakassai opined that power should shift to the South and in fact, the South-East should produce the next president in the interest of fairness, equity and stability.
He said: “We know it that all these presidential aspirants of the APC from the South are being encouraged by some cabals in the presidency for the purpose of breaking the clamour for a southern presidential candidate from the APC.
“The cabals are doing it to break the ranks of the southern part of the country that are clamouring for a power shift.”
He added: “For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is not the party in power, but for the stability and giving a sense of belonging, I would support that it is zoned to the south and in the south-east in particular.
“This will help to heal the wounds of the nation as was the case in 1999, went the country was bleeding as the result of the June 12 agitation.”
Yakassai explained that President Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election in 2015 because of his alliance with the South-west.
He added that President Buhari should be the strong voice for power rotation and zoning after the help rendered to him by the region.
Yakassai also accused the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) of supporting the motifs of the cabals in the presidency by clamouring that the North retains power in 2023.
He asserted that the ACF’s clamour is a harbinger of crisis, insisting that it was not the fault of anybody that the north presented “an incompetent person for the presidency in 2015.”
This article was originally published on Nigeria News