Caption:Kassim Afegbua
Kassim Afegbua, former commissioner of information in Edo State, has asked the north to abandon their 2027 presidential aspirations.
Afegbua’s comment came after George Akume, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), urged northerners nursing presidential ambition in 2027 to wait until 2031.
Akume also urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to keep his presidential ambitions on ice until Tinubu 2031.
However, Paul Ibe, Atiku’s media adviser, dismissed Akume’s remark, saying his comments were attempts to “kidnap the aspirations of his principal and other northerners.”
Speaking during his appearance on Prime Time, an Arise Television programme, Afegbua said the north should allow the southern part of the country to complete its eight years in power.
Afegbua criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for neglecting its constitutional power rotation guidelines.
The former commissioner accused the PDP of abandoning its principles during the 2023 elections by fielding Abubakar as its presidential candidate.
“If you recall, one of the reasons I canvassed for a Southern presidency in 2023 was because Alhaji Atiku Abubakar decided to change the political narrative of the PDP.
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“Article 7 of its own constitution, Section C, stipulates that there should be a rotation of power. In an effort to railroad the polity into presenting an Atiku, seeing him as someone who can defeat the APC, they decided to package him, and since then, the center cannot hold up to now.
“So, when you have that kind of scenario, where a party is not able to follow the normative order of its own constitution by virtue of its own provisions, then you have this kind of scenario of trying to push the political algorithms.
“For me, I don’t think the North should bother to discuss 2027 for power to be ceded to them. The South must be made to complete its eight years, then power would now go to the North,” he said.
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