The governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has said he would not give his support to any northern candidate for 2023 presidency.
The Kaduna State governor disclosed this on Saturday in an interview the BBC Hausa Service as published by The Cable.
In his view, the idea of zoning the presidency is necessarily not constitutional, but as a result of the country’s political arrangement which is said should be respected.
He said the current president, President Muhammadu Buhari, is from the North.
According to him, “The southern part of the country is supposed to produce the president come 2023; I don’t support a northerner to vie for the seat after President Muhammadu Buhari, based on Nigeria’s political arrangement.
“That is why I came out and said that after President Buhari has been in office for eight years, no northerner should run for office. Let the southerners also have eight years.
“If you look at how I am, I don’t take anyone to work with me for the zone he came from. The eligibility I look at is if who is entrusted to the public will hold it properly.”
El-Rufai added that he had no intention in becoming the president in 2023 and described such rumor as baseless.
He said, “It has been said that I have loved the presidency since I was a minister in the FCT. This is nonsense. I do not want the Nigerian presidency. God gives power, whether you like it or not, if He wants it, He will give it to you, but I have never sought the presidency of Nigeria, no one can say I have ever sought it.”
