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| Arewa Youth president, Yerima Shettima |
The President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, has advised Nigerians to reject both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s general elections.
In an interview with Saturday SUN, Shettima described both parties as big failures, adding that Nigerians must look for an alternative in order to move the nation forward.
When asked to comment on those insisting that 2023 Presidency should be zoned to the South for fairness and justice he said, "For me there is nothing like zoning, and there should be nothing like zoning. Zoning is not democratic, and not only that, it is not recognized in the Nigeria’s constitution.
"Zoning will not allow Nigeria to get the best material. It will not only deny the nation the opportunity of getting the best candidate to do the job, it will also be a big setback for our democracy. We should not have anything to do with it. Let every Nigerian that wishes to contest for the nation’s highest political office be allowed to contest.
"Any political party that adopts zoning should know that such a party is dead on arrival. Adoption of zoning will spell doom not only for democracy but also for any party that embraces the idea. Zoning is an infringement on the constitutional rights of people. It restricts them from aspiring for positions of their choice, and this is why some of us have been campaigning against zoning.
"For us in the North, we are not for zoning, we are for the best candidate to emerge, and any party that insists on zeroing in on a Southerner under the guise of zoning should forget about getting our votes in the North.
"What we are for is for justice for everybody. Whether you are from the South or the North, you should be able to aspire for any political office of your choice. Zoning is undemocratic. I have been reading about some groups, and associations canvassing for Southern presidency in 2023, but what I want to say is this, there is no justification for that.
"Those people asking that the Presidency should be zoned to the South in 2023 are greedy and selfish. Then apart from that, it will even be very unfair to the North for the South to have the Presidency in 2023.