By Ozioruva Aliu
Former Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, Sir Roland Owie, yesterday, called on the former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to forget his 2023 ambition which indicates that event that the main political parties agree to zone the presidency in the southern part of Nigeria, will be the turn of the southeast to form the next president of Nigeria.
Owie while speaking at the emergence of a group, Justice and Peace Forum in Nigeria (JPFN) which he said will be launched early next year said but in his opinion and for fairness and justice, the north still has about four year after 2023 to catch up to the south and rotation of the presidency since 1999.
He said but for the zoning agreed in 1999 that the presidency should go southwest, President Olusegun Obasanjo would not be the president of Nigeria who lost the whole southwest to the opposition for the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
He said: “Bola Tinubu is my friend, but the truth is that where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Zoning began in 1999 and to God be the glory, it started from the Southwest and Obasanjo took it and won the PDP.But for zoning, Obasanjo will not be president because he lost his unit, he lost his ward, he lost his local government, he lost his state and he lost the entire South-West zone to Chief Olu Falae.
“He finished his eight years, the thing moved north, Yar’Adua chose it, what he did in two and a half years, a number of presidents did not do, the current president did not do the 10 percent of what.Jar’Adua did.His tenure was cut short because when God called no one could say no.President Jonathan ended his tenure and then lasted another four years but in communion I speak to you, the southern part of Nigeria lasted 14 years including when Buhari ended his regime in 2023 even though it was a thorny regime, the north still had four years.
“If Tinubu knows that Nigeria has peace in this zoning, if he knows to do to others what you want them to do to you, he should not think of the presidency because if we all agree by 2023 the presidency should come in the south., it is not in the southwest, it is not in the south-south, it is in the southeast.If all the major political parties agree that it should come in the south, the south -west is not here, they have completed their eight years.
“There is a metaphor in Benin that says the mouth will not prevent the owner from talking to it, it may be part of the money he has, he wants to waste it let people collect it but if the parties and Nigerians agrees that the presidency should come south, it is not the southwest either, it is the southeast but for now I say that as a catholic, it is not fair to lie, it is fair to be fair, the north is there are Four plus years to complete their tenure after Buhari. “
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