You cannot rule a country since independence and expect the south to keep quiet — Bewaji


Power struggle between the North and South has reached a boiling point, and the nation's unity now hangs in the balance. The question of where the next president comes from has also dominated headlines since the last presidential election.



The North may be coy about some things, but not when power is involved. It already made public its desire to cling on to power for at least a century from now.

The South on its part, has seemingly lost patience on the imbalance of power between the two regions, and you bet waiting for a century while watching power rotates from within the North, sounds more like an insult.


And now, Dr. Wunmi Bewaji, a one-time member of the House of Representatives, and currently the Executive Secretary of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER), has added his voice to the
endless debate saying the country has had enough problems, and may not survive should the North fail to release power to the South in 2023.




Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Bewaji said the North has had the privilege of ruling the country 95 percent of the time since independence, and therefore, should have no issues ceding power to the South in a zoning arrangement meant to ensure balance of power and unity of the country.

He said, "We have a very checkered history of long years of military rule and as a result in the near 40 years of the existence of Nigeria, the North ruled Nigeria for nearly 95 per cent of that period and that was what led to the emergence of Obasanjo but upon his emergence there was an unwritten agreement that power would rotate between the North and the South.



"Despite the fact that our democracy is 20 years, we must recognize the fact that the Nigerian federation is a very fragile federation. So that gentleman agreement must be respected.

"My advice to politicians within the major political parties is that we should tread softly. The situation in the country does not allow for these reckless statements.


"Whoever is trying to fight should know that he is playing with fire. We have IPOB in the South East, we have Boko Haram in the North and we have ISIS in the West African province. Our security agencies are stretched thin.

"I do not think that this is the right time to make reckless statements about the issue of rotation.
Rotation has come to stay, Buhari is from the North and by 2023, he would have spent eight years and then it would be the turn of the South, any attempt to make anybody from the North succeed Buhari would be interpreted as a third term agenda by the Buhari administration," he said.
Previous Post Next Post