Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello has faulted agitations by Southern Governors for zoning of twenty-twenty-three presidency to the region.
He dismissed the call as unconstitutional, saying what the country needs is a President of Nigeria and not of any zone.
Bello maintained that rotational presidency is alien to Constitution and political parties in the country.
According to him, the Nigeria of today deserves the best, saying Nigeria is a ship or a flight that requires the best captain to steer or lead the affairs of the nation to a desire destination.
He spoke at the opening session of the maiden GYB seminar for political and crime correspondents in Abuja.
In his words, if zoning will solve Nigeria’s problem when President Olusegun Obasanjo was the President for eight years, all the problems of the South should have been solved.
Also, he says when President Musa Yar’dua of blessed memory came on board, the whole problems of the North should have been solved, and when it returned back to the South-south, the problems of Niger Delta should have gone.
According to him, the choice of the next president should be shaped by five factors.
For him, the factors are youthfulness, courage of conviction, ability to restore security, capacity for management of diversity and equity.
Bello, who also identified equity as a factor, pointed out that the presidential slot should either go to the North central or Southeast.
Acknowledging the agitation for zoning to the South, Bello said zoning should not dethrone merit and equity as salient criteria.
He pointed out that zoning is neither in the 1999 Constitution nor the constitution of the party, adding that it is a sentimental issue.
The Governor also reflected on the national question, saying the solution to insecurity does not lie in state police but community police.
On security, which has been a major challenge in the last one decade, the Governor emphasised that proven ability to enforce security, unity and peace in a large territory with a difficult terrain should be considered.
The forty-six year old Governor who is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress,APC, has been urged by numerous groups, tribes, religion to declare his ambition for the presidency.
Leadership is, therefore, the means to a lot of potentially awesome ends, but it is not an end in itself. It gives you a platform to do good and effect change. I am determined to give it my best now and in the future.
“The state of the nation today places a burden on us as leaders to act intentionally towards national healing and cooperation.
“Tribe and religion, as we all know, are the major components of our diversity as a nation. They are meant to be our greatest strengths, working together to give Nigeria a wider spectrum of choices and more competitiveness in the comity of nations, and in the human and social indices of national development.
“Unfortunately, we have steadily mismanaged these gifts and they have started turning toxic on us, becoming, for the most part, instruments of exclusion and coercive politics, as well as marginalisation and discrimination.
“The result is a citizenry at cross-purposes and a nation that is practically at her wits’ end.”
Bello, however, stressed that the country needed urgent re-arrangement in the ways and manners in which “we relate if we are to arrest the dangerous slide in confidence and team-building among Nigerians caused by years and years of mismanaged diversity.”
He continued: “Within the context of Kogi State which is a microcosm of Nigeria itself, our diversity was enough to tear us apart as a government in the same manner it had divided our people for decades before our coming, but that is if we allowed it. We refused to allow them, and by working together instead, we were able to leverage our diversity.
“Tribe, religion, geography and class no longer play a role in the measure of anyone among us. We have Nigerians from everywhere helping us to move Kogi State forward, right from our Cabinet and into other areas and positions.
“Today we have managed to improve the sociopolitical outlook for our people and state and created an intra-state legacy of cooperation and integration which will outlast us.
“This achievement did not come from wishful thinking but by the deployment of 5 foundational mindsets from my day one in office. One, government exists for everyone and every part of society. Two, our constitutional guarantees of equality as citizens are binding on leaders to enforce irrespective of their own personal beliefs, feelings and inclinations.
“Three, inclusivity and equal access to government and her institutions are the inalienable right of all citizens.
“Four, Affirmative Action is for every section of the populace and governance is useless unless it ensures that wherever people are disadvantaged or excluded in our society, leadership makes it a point of duty to take action to balance the equation.
“Five, and finally, equity, unity and the fear of God are the principal bedrocks on which any society which aspires to be egalitarian, and most especially a diverse society like ours, must be built.
He spoke in company of the Secretary to Government, Dr. Folasade Ayoade; Information Commissioner, Kingsley Fanwo; some federal and state legislators from the Northcentral state, and other aides.
Participants who were drawn from the print, electronic both radio and television viewed a documentary on Nigeria’s potentials for growth and development, with an emphasis on the central place of Kogi State in the country.
They were also taken through conference sessions with sub-themes: ‘Reporting Nigeria for Nigeria,’ Youth Participation in Governance,’ Prioritising Education as pre-requisite for a peaceful society: The Kogi example,’ Achieving food security inspite of global economic downturn: The Kogi story,’ and ‘Constructive reporting in crisis situation