A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, says there is nothing bad in rotating the presidency amongst the six geo-political zones of the country.
Oyedepo sad this on Thursday while speaking at the weekly ‘Political Dialogue’ in Ilorin.
The political dialogue was organised by Nations Leadership Institute, Ilorin, for over 50 young people from the 16 local government areas of Kwara. The title of the paper presented at the dialogue was: “Politics as danger to democracy”, was delivered by a media consultant, Malam Tunde Mohammed.
Oyedepo, who is the President of the Institute, said “rotational presidency is good; it must go with equity and justice”.
The APC chieftain said he was surprised when he heard Northern governors and elders saying that rotational presidency was undemocratic.
“Why are they now saying that zoning is undemocratic? Were they not here when the whole thing started? Why is it today they say it is not democratic?” he asked.
Oyedepo, a lawyer, said the stand of the Northern elders would make the Southerners angry more.
According to him, there should be tolerance among the people of the federating units in the country.
“In a plural society like Nigeria, there must be tolerance, if you base everything on population as perceived, it will not work. A small fraction of people in a polity can cause problem for that country,” he added.
He was of the view that others should be allowed to enjoy the arrangement put in place since the advent of the current democratic dispensation.
Oyedepo, who is also Chairman of Governing Council of Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, lamented that the present political arrangement did not fully allow separation of power.
Earlier in his presentation, the guest lecturer, Malam Tunde Mohammed, said politics and democracy were inseparable, adding “there can be no democracy without politics”.
Mohammed noted that the issues that enabled democracy were also the factors that undermined it. (NAN)
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