As the 2023 presidential elections draw closer, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC-Nasarawa), has asserted that zoning political offices between North and South is not a Constitutional issue, but an arrangement by political parties which cannot be binding on any of the parties.
Adamu said this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja, while reacting to rising clamour for power shift from North to South in 2023.
‘On the issue of zoning, people are misreading the signals; the issue of zoning is not in the Nigerian Constitution.
‘It is not a constitutional matter. The six geo-political zones that we have are not in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These are just arrangements for administrative conveniences.
‘They may develop with time and probably get a place in the Constitution, I don’t know but as of now it is not. So nobody is saying if you don’t zone you are contravening a constitutional provision,‘ he said.
Read Also: We Are Yet To Take Decision On Zoning – APC
He described Nigeria as an artificial union of southern and northern protectorates made by British colonialists.
‘Lord Lugard deemed it appropriate to unite both the northern and southern protectorates into one country call Nigeria.
‘They chose the name for us; they did the national anthem for us,’ he said.
According to him, whatever the intentions of the colonial masters were, the protectorates have since coexisted relatively peacefully as Nigeria, until the recent rise in calls for secession.
‘For good or for bad, we have been together like in good marriage.
‘But in recent times, the echoes on issues that divide us will appear to be gaining more and more momentum and are getting louder. That is not good.
‘And one thing which, for good or for bad from inception of amalgamation, the north as we have it till now, is much bigger in terms of land mass and population than the south.
‘In fact, the northern part alone constitutes 60 percent of the landmass of this country,’ Adamu said.
He went further to add; ‘Unfortunately, the rate at which the different parts of the country were developing was not good for the smooth running of affairs of the country.
‘There are disparities in education, big gap in education; there are disparities in economics, in development of the various parts.’
He, however, decried recent rising security challenges in the country.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
