From Dan Amasingha, Minna

As the call by Southern Governors for the county’s presidency to shift to the South in 2023 generate heat in the North, A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC in Niger state Alhaji Usman Tinau Mohammed has thrown his weight behind the Southern Governor’s in the call for the presidency of the country to be zoned to the southern part of the country by the ruling party.

The stand by Governors of states from the southern part of the country who rose from their meeting held in Lagos on Monday asking for the presidency to be zoned to the South among other decisions is generating heated debate in Niger political circle.

Alhaji Usman Tinau Mohammed said in a chat with newsmen in Minna Niger state, yesterday that doing so will foster peace, progress and unity of the country.

“I think for equity, justice and fairness, let the south produce the next president come 2023, that is the only way justice will be seen to have been done.”

The Party  Chieftain who also serve as the Director General of the State pension board  argued that zoning arrangements for both elective and appointments into offices at all levels has brought peace and stability to the system since 1999, and therefore urged all political parties in the country to respect and adhere strictly to it for “fairness and justice”.

According to him zoning or shifting the presidency to the South of the country will remove any suspicion that the north of the country wants to cling to power forever.

“As a party we must respect this zoning arrangement both at the local, state and the national levels. This is the best thing to do in a democratic system, internal democracy must be encouraged if we must move forward as a country,” he submitted.

He also hinted that Governor Abubakar Sani Bello from Niger state and the North Central geo -political zone should be picked as the vice president to a southern presidential candidate.

According to him this is because “Bello has shown capacity to deliver especially in his handling of the last membership registration /revalidation exercise of the party and his ability to broker peace among members of the party in Ondo state prior to the Governorship election”.

Mohammed said as the country prepares for a review of the 1999 constitution the position of the deputy governors should be made stronger by constitutionally providing for executive functions for the occupants of the seats.