Former Governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Sani Yarima, has cried out over allege ploy to ruin his presidential ambition using the on-going revalidation and registration exercise of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in state, as a tool.
According to a report by Daily Trust, Yarima said, powers in the APC are manipulating the validation exercise with the aim of ruining his political ambition.
Yarima is one of several politicians in the North to express interest in running for president in 2023, and seem have intensified efforts to actualize his dream. In fact, he recently said he is targeting over 40 million votes in the 2023 presidential election.
The former governor had also previously said he is more than qualified to rule the country, and does not feel threatened by the ambition of others, particularly, the national leader of the APC, Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking with Daily Trust on why he wants to become president despite the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, being from the North-West, he replied, "I don’t believe in regionalism, saying that this man is from this side or that. Let’s have the best people who have much more better things to offer to Nigerians.
"Everybody should come up with what they want to do for Nigerians and how they want to move Nigeria forward. The contributions you want to make and such a person should be assessed by Nigerians whether he or she should be elected or not.
"It is not from where you come from and not your religion. As far as I am concerned, you should look at individuals as Nigerians otherwise we should ask for rotation of presidency in the constitution.
"If we are looking at regions, North-West has done, let’s go to South-South; which means anybody whether he is good or not but once determined by that zone should be elected.
"If it is not determined by constitutional arrangement, every Nigerian should aspire to be in elective position of government."
On insinuations that President Buhari signed a pact with the National Leader of the Party (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to hand over to him in 2023, the former Zamfara State Governor said President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu are free to make deals and even sign it with pens made of gold, but that does not mean they own the country.
He said, "I don’t think Nigeria belongs to any of them and I don’t think anyone in any position can determine what Nigeria should have.
"Politics is about election – for people to decide what they want. So it is the majority of the people that will determine who they want.
"If he signed an agreement with Asiwaju, that agreement cannot be implemented even in getting the ticket. It cannot guarantee Asiwaju a ticket."
A determined Yarima, is wary of potential enemies, and sees the validation exercise as a potential threat.
Yarima’s political allies, Junaidu Dosara, said that Yarima is still waiting for officials to register him at his residence in Gusau, the state capital.
He alleged that when the registration materials arrived at the state capital, materials for the polling unit of the former governor in Bakura were removed, allegedly by those nursing grudges against him.
“When pressure was mounted on them, former governor Abdulaziz Yari intervened. However, those assigned to go and get the registration material for Yarima’s polling unit were nowhere to be found. And all efforts to get them proved abortive for they have switched off their phones,” Dosara said.