All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume on Sunday said the retention of the party’s presidential ticket in the North in 2023 would be tantamount to a third term for the region.
He said the pre-2015 agreement among the founding fathers of the party favoured the rotation of the presidential slot between the North and the South.
Ndume, who represents Borno South District, spoke on the 2023 succession at a roundtable organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja.
He said: “I am against APC producing its presidential candidate from the North. The APC presidential candidate should come from the South. If you have the presidential candidate of the APC from the North, it is tantamount to third term.
“The constitution says the President should serve two terms and we say the North should serve two terms. If you say the North should produce the President again, it means you are going for third term, which is not fair. I believe in fairness, justice and equity.”
The former Senate Leader maintained that from the outset, APC leaders had agreed in principle that the North should produce the President, adding that, after eight years, power should shift to the South.
He said: “I am not the party, but I am of the APC. I am one of the founders of APC. In principle, we agreed that the north should produce the President. Buhari, Kwakwanso, Atiku and (the late) Nda Isaiah contested. (Nation)