Fearing a dèja vu, top northern politicians are beginning to state their basic minimum should President Muhammadu Buhari, be unable to complete his term of office and contest for re-election in 2019.
One of them has come out into the open with the position that has been a whisper for weeks. Chairman of Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, is insisting that the north must retain the coveted highest office in 2019.
The death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2012 caused the baton to be passed on to then Vice President, Dr.Goodluck Jonathan, who went on to win the 2011 Presidential election.
He was to lose his re-election bid in 2015 to Buhari.
In a newspaper interview, Abdulahi said, “The constitutional provision says that in the event that the president dies in office or becomes incapacitated for one reason or the other and cannot perform the duties of his office, he will be succeeded by the Vice president.
“But no one is in a position to know at what point he is going to recover fully and come back to office, or whether the unexpected could happen.The northern elders insist that Osinbajo cannot replace Buhari in 2019
“If the worst case scenario happens, and Buhari is not back on seat, the constitution is very clear that the vice president takes over.
“And what we then expect is that he will take that tenure to its logical end and from there, the politics of power sharing will take precedence over anything else.
“When the unexpected happens, in 2019 we will be back to our position that the north should be treated equitably and fairly.
“And we expect that another northern candidate will emerge as presidential candidate on the platform of APC.”