Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has told the North to perish the thought of the country’s presidency returning to that region in 2027.
Okupe who made the declaration while appearing on an Arise Television programme Monday night, said those agitating for a Northern presidency in the next election are wasting their time and efforts because as things stand politically, power will not return to the north in the next election cycle.
“I say this authoritatively without any fear of contradiction or equivocation, in 2027, power cannot return to the North yet. That’s not how we do it,” the former Director-General for the Peter Obi presidential campaign council said when the question of power rotation came up.
“We rotate between the North and the South. The North does eight years, at the end of which the South does eight years.
“I’m not saying that Bola Tinubu must be president in 2027, but it’s not going to be a northerner,” he said, and went on to identify sectionalism as the most fundamental problems why Nigeria is stagnating.
“Those who control the affairs of this nation, in terms of politics before now, were more interested in national interest than sectional interest.”
Okupe noted that when Olusegun Obasanjo became president, there was an unwritten consensus to elect a Southwestern leader to address regional grievances following the presumed election victory and death of MKO Abiola.
“Our failure to evolve a national elite system is one of the most fundamental problems why Nigeria is stagnating because we all pull in different directions.”
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