Call for power rotation undemocratic – Ex-NOA DG, Idi Farouk

A former Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji Idi Farouk, has called on Nigerians advocating for power rotation between the North and the South to jettison the idea, describing it is undemocratic.

Fraouk made the call in an interview with the newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, while reacting to moves by some people to ensure that the presidency returns to the north in 2027.

Supreme News reports that the House of Representatives had, on Thursday, rejected a bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution to provide for a single term of six for the offices of the president, governors and local chairmen.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere (PDP-Imo) and 33 others, also sought rotation of the office of the president between the north and the south, and the governorship among the three senatorial districts in each state.

The 34 lawmakers have, however, resolved to reintroduce the bill, insisting that the decision on the floor of the house would not put an end to the agitation to ensure the actualisation of their move.

But, to Farouk, the decision on where a party’s candidate should emerge from remains the sole responsibility of the party, based on its election wining strategies.

“I am not an advocate of any particular place where the president should come from, whether to the north or the south.

“I have never even believed in it. Where a presidential candidate will come from is strictly at the discretion of the party; the party takes the decision, not the general public, including the electorate.

“I want to recall that this rotation idea came from the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), that after (former President) Shehu Shagari, it was going to the south.

“But could it have been like that in the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) or Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP)? No. It was the decision of the party.

“The NPN, in wanting to win, say they are a national party and they want to win more souls, that after the election, if the president comes from the north, after his tenure, the next one should go to the south.

“That was why Chief Adisa Akinloye and Alex Ekweme were warming up,’’ he said.

Farouk said that the idea of power rotation would only work in a country with one party system, not in Nigeria with multi-party system and different ethnic groups.

“If we are a one-party state, yes, that may work. But now, we have 18 political parties.

“Are you telling me that because of power rotation, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) should take its candidate from Yobe? It doesn’t work like that. I have never stood for that kind of a thing.

“ If we are a one-party state, I agree. But we have 18 parties, with each one wanting to win elections. So why should I go where I do not have strength to take a candidate?

“We should throw that thing out, in my opinion, because it is not democratic. I hear people making that argument, even during the election,’’ he said.

Farouk said the truth was that President Bola Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election because he was accepted by a majority of Nigerians, not because he is a southerner.

“That’s how you win elections. If he had stood on the platform of ‘I am a southerner, vote for me’, he would have lost the election.

“Don’t forget, most of his votes even came from the north where you have northern candidates. Not only one northern candidate, the most prominent one was Atiku.

“So, I am not for the move from here to there; it is a mere political talk.

“When 10 parties will go and say this is going to the south now. Somebody was funding it for an individual’s benefit. Not because that is how it should be.

“Then you go back to your state. Every state everywhere in Nigeria has north and south and east and west,’’ Farouk said.