2019: Why Presidency should remain in North for another 8 years – Owie Rowland

Chairman of the Action Democratic Party’s National Contact Committee, Senator Rowland Owie, has stated that the North should occupy the presidency in the next eight years with the South East producing the Vice President.

In a statement on Tuesday, he said the death of former president, Umaru Yar’Adua truncated the zoning arrangement between the North and South, making the South to occupy the presidency for more years than the North since 1999.

To correct the imbalance, Owie said the North should produce the president for the next eight years, while the South East should take over in 2027.

He said, ““It is unfortunate that many of our southern politicians are naive and shallow. Some years ago, Nigerians agreed, at least as a convention, that the Presidency should be rotated between North and South. It started in 1999.

“The South took the first shot with Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007.

The North took it with Umar Yar’Adua, but unfortunately, Yar’Adua died and Goodluck Jonathan took over.

“If we calculate from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2019, the South would have produced president of Nigeria for 14 years and 240 days, while the North would have had the Presidency for five years and 339 days.

“So, from May 29, 2019, the North still has eight years of Presidency. Where there is no justice, there can never be peace.

“For justice and peace to reign, the Presidency should go to the North and vice president to South East, and when North completes its tenure in 2027, then Presidency goes to the South East,” he said in the statement.