2023: Amaechi blasts El-Rufai for kicking against zoning

First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, has slammed Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, over his suggestion that Nigeria should abandon zoning of the presidency for competence.

Speaking with the Sun, Amaechi stated that El-Rufai did not have the right to talk about Nigeria.

The elder statesman also urged Igbos to come to him for advise, if they want the presidency, as he “holds the key”.

El-Rufai had described the zoning of political offices as a barrier to political equality. 

But Amaechi has now fired back, saying, “What El-Rufai is saying doesn’t make sense at all. Who is El-Rufai to talk about Nigeria, is it just because he happened to win election to be a governor; who is he, where is he?

“The people of Nigeria, from the North Central, North-east, North-west, South-east, South-south and South-west must come together, and in the spirit of give and take, in the spirit of compromise and in the spirit of fraternal understanding, fashion out a real way of living together as a nation, and if they don’t do that the thing will collapse one day, either today or in the near future.

“In political power, you have to win it, and that is why I have told the Igbo, that if they want to be the president, they have to organise, they have to strategise, they have to plan, they have to work, they have to go out. You don’t become president by mere wishing to be one.

“Nobody will give you president on a platter of gold; Ndigbo have to plan if they want to be president, but from what they are saying now, I don’t see them being ready for the presidency in 2023. I have talked to them about it, that is both the Igbo in the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Let them come to me now that I’m still alive, I will tell them what they should do to win the presidency in 2023. Nobody is going to concede it to them. If they don’t want to come to me let them take whatever they see. That key was given to me by Azikiwe few hours before he stopped breathing, and I hold that key; if they want the presidency let them come to me, and if they don’t want, let them stay, and what they see let them take it.”