Why Tinubu should run in 2023, by SWAGA

By Emmanuel Oladesu, Deputy Editor

The Southwest Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) 2023 has highlighted reasons why All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should run for President.

The group described the former Lagos Governor as a leader with a national outlook, detribalised, competent and courageous politician and statesman.

To SWAGA, Tinubu’s hunt for talents is legendary, adding that his stewardship in Lagos, which is a mini-country, shows that he has the experience, capability and mental resources to lead a diverse and multi-ethnic Nigeria.

The SWAGA trained rolled into Lagos when members of its Central Working Committee (CWC) led by Prince Dayo Adeyeye, spoke with reporters on its vision, plans and fitness of its candidate for leadership in the post-Buhari period.

With Senator Adeyeye, former Minister of State for Works were deputy chairman of the group, Senator Soji Akanbi; former House of Representatives members Rotimi Makinde, Bosun Oladele and Oyetunde Ojo, and chairman of Ifako/Ijaye Council, Lagos State, Apostle Toba Oke.

The group, which clarified that Tinubu had not unfolded any presidential ambition, said the outcome of its vast consultations in the Southwest confirmed his acceptability to many Nigerians.

Adeyeye said through the activities of SWAGA, which is a voluntary organisation, “SWAGA will become a Nigerian agenda.”

The former Minister said a President from the Southwest in the mould of Tinubu will always be fair to all the zones, recalling that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who hails from the Southwest, never marginalised any region.

Adeyeye stressed: “Asiwaju will be fair to all as president. He has been fair to all nationalities in Lagos. He gave them positions based on capability. He will not be president of Yoruba, but the president of Nigeria working for the interest of all Nigerians.”

The SWAGA leader said there is justification for presidential zoning to the South to foster equity, fairness, justice and a sense of belonging.

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He added: “President Muhammadu Buhari will not contest for a third term. The position will be vacant in 2023. By principle, not cast in stone, the Presidency should rotate between the North and South, in a very diverse country characterised by the fragility of polity and centrifugal forces. It is a gentleman agreement.”

Adeyeye said if there is zoning to the South, there will also be a decision on micro zoning although there is no general agreement yet on its direction.

He recalled that zoning to the North became imperative in 2015 due to the extreme tension in the post-Yar’Adua period when the region felt it was shortchanged.

Adeyeye said by 2023, the North would have done 10 years at the Presidency, adding that it should be the turn of the South in 2023.

Acknowledging there is agitation for zoning to other micro-zones in the South, he said: “The Presidency of Nigeria is too important to be given to a person sitting in the corner of his house. Power is not served a la carte.”