The Kogi State government, through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, on Monday reacted to Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s comments that Governor Yahaya Bello was at the university when the issue of rotational presidency was agreed upon.
Bello had, during a maiden edition of the ‘Governor Yahaya Bello seminar for political and crime correspondents’ in Abuja on Friday, described rotational presidency as “unconstitutional”, adding that “Nigerians should be allowed to make their choices for the best candidates to emerge for the top posts.”
This was condemned by the Ibo apex sociocultural organisation through a statement.
However, reacting to the Ohanaeze’s statement, Fanwo said: “We have practiced rotation, but what have we to show for it as a nation? Who remembers where a good president comes from?
“The South-East can bring forward their best to contest the election. What the nation needs now is the best for the job.
“Our constitution doesn’t respect rotational presidency. It was the convenience of the political class.
“The governor didn’t dispute such unwritten agreement, but he is faulting it. We need a young, vibrant and pragmatic president come 2023. We need a man who will be at home with everyone from everywhere.
“The agreement made while he was in school over 20 years ago must not necessarily be in force forever, especially when it has not taken our nation to where we want to be as the true giant of Africa.
“We need a new one for a generation that wants to see Nigeria prosper.
“Governor Yahaya Bello is working with an Anambra indigene as Director-General, Research and Development; a Borno indigene as his Special Adviser on Public Relations and a Lagos indigene as his Special Adviser on Legal Matters.
“Nigeria will never be great as long as we think our greatness is in the shell of ethnic competition. Let the best emerge in 2023.”
Ohanaeze, in a statement on Monday, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, had said Governor Bello had demonstrated a remarkable obsession with ambition shortly after providence paved way for him to be sworn in as a governor in 2015 at an impressionable age of 40.
The apex Igbo body pointed out that “there is no doubt that Bello has a date with destiny going by a smooth political ascendancy that life has presented to him.”
It expressed fears that the youthful governor “is embarking on a political adventure that lacks both conscience and principle.”
