2023 Presidential Race: Zoning arrangement is not in APC’s constitution – Shekarau

Ex- Kano State Governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau has said there is no provision for zoning of presidency in the constitution of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Senator Shekarau said this at a media interactive session in Kano on Sunday.

He said although the PDP has the zoning arrangement in its constitution.

The Senator representing Kano Central at the National Assembly said although what obtained was ‘’constitution of common sense’’ that deals with fairness and equity.

The former minister of education was responding to question on his position on zoning arrangement for the 2023 presidential election.

‘’I believe the guiding principle should be fairness and justice to all, adding that “there is the constitution of common sense, people have to use it.”

Juxtaposing a situation, he said it is similar to how the principle of the six geo-political zones is not in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria “but today it has become a recognized principle that is followed to the later.”

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‘’It is also not constitutional that president and vice president must come from different zones but that it will be folly for any presidential aspirant to announce a vice president from his zone or state.’

‘’For instance, I am from Kano and assuming I am contesting the presidential race and I pick a running mate from Bauchi would look silly.’’

“I don’t talk of zoning but balancing,” he said, adding that, “My believe is that today in Nigeria, there is no one state that does not have hundreds of qualified presidential candidate; so it should not be about killing oneself for which area produces the president. It should be ‘who is it’ and not ‘where he is from.”

Answering a question on his relationship with Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Shekarau said his relationship with the governor is cordial and dated back the military administration when Ganduje was a Commissioner and he was a permanent Secretary at the cabinet office.

Also on his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Shekarau said “Kwankwaso and I are best of friends. We may have different political ideology but we all belong to Kano,” he said.

‘’Even when we left the PDP, our grudge was not with him but the party leadership at the national level that violated the rule of the game.’’