From Oluwakayode Idowu, Abuja
For the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, no Northerner should step in the ring to contest the presidency in 2023. He said it is the turn of the South to produce the next President. He said time has come for all politicians from the Northern States to rise above narrow interest and support the South to produce the next president.
Zulum, a Professor, spoke at the golden jubilee lecture and the public presentation of a book titled: ‘Strategic Turnaround’, written by the former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside.
Zulum’s suggestion trailed similar sentiments of the Katsina State Governor Bello Masari, his Kano counterpart, Abdullahi Ganduje, and former Military Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who emphasised that the zoning of the higest office will help foster national unity.
Speaking on the topic: “Security and Economic Growth: Leadership in Challenging Times,” the Borno governor said: “Power rotation is a covenant between us, hence, the need to shift the power to South”.
He argued that every part of the country should be given a sense of belonging. Zulum said there must be a demarcation between competency and loyalty.
“I would advocate as a starting point that good governance is the heart and soul of security and development. Bad governance will spread insecurity and destroy the possibility of development as trust is broken between the elected and the electorate.
“A weak system breeds corruption and to survive, people will try whatever means to circumvent due processes and over time this will lead to insecurity. The search for alternative means of survival that is not legal constitutes insecurity,” he said.
Zulum added: “Our system has been so weak that people simply consider the civil service as a place to earn a salary for doing nothing. We need to change this and we are changing that gradually.”
He called for the strengthening of “our civil service structure to increase greater productivity and performance”.
The chairman of the occasion and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said issues of security and economy have reached a point where “innovative, practicable and implementable solutions are prescribed” while admitting that these “issues are complex and intricate”.
Mustapha added that the security situation in Nigeria “calls for collective responsibility as well as deliberate collective actions by both the government and the citizens”.