Elder statesman and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Ango Abdullahi, has said Nigerians still owe the Northern part of the country four more years in the presidency.
Abdullahi who is the convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), spoke on Wednesday at the ongoing General Assembly and 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Forum held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
He claimed that the North had supported other regions leaders and had “rubbed more backs” for them.
He therefore said those asking candidates from the North to drop their ambition had no right to do so.
This, according to him, is because those Northerners also have right to run for office as many times as they desire.
Speaking, Abdullahi said, “The constitution is very clear that I can stand the election twenty times, and I can lose twenty times. But nothing should stop me from contesting elections if I want.
“Then when you look at it in terms of well, ‘do me I do you’, rub my back and I rub yours, the North has rubbed more backs than its back has been rubbed. Even if you are talking about the years in power from 1999 till date, Obasanjo did eight years; Jonathan six, that is 14; Umaru two, and now Buhari eight years. So, I am being owed even in the number of years, four years.
“The issue should not have been we are not qualified to contest, we have no right to contest. Certainly, this is the reason we are saying now that the issue in the Nigerian political environment, must be based on democratic tenets only.
“There should be no issue of reserving anything for anybody. If you win an election, you win based on this thumbprint. If you win, we will accept.
“But for us to begin to see threats that if this happens, and we do not like it, we’ll do something negative, we are warning that the election will be contested hopefully free and fair, and credible.
“And anybody who wins the election must be accepted as the winner of the election, without sentiments. And if there is any attempt to subvert it, then we’ll be ready to also counter,” he added.
