Bakare stressed that emphasis should be put on competence in the choice of leaders.
The Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said it is not wrong or unconstitutional for a northerner to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Buhari is from the North and many southerners expect that the presidency will come to their region after eight years of Buhari’s reign. Some have attributed it to an unwritten rule, which Buhari also benefited from.
But in an interview on Channels TV, Bakare stressed that emphasis should be put on competence in the choice of leaders.
He said, “Let the best of the best emerge… it doesn’t matter which part of the country the person comes from.
“I have heard all kinds of arguments on rotation and zoning. Some are saying (Olusegun) Obasanjo, plus (Goodluck) Jonathan, that’s 14 years and (Umaru) Yar’Adua plus Buhari is 10 years and that the North still has four more years. At this moment, what is needed is a person who can do it.
“Political parties should bring their best forward. Let the best of the best emerge. It can go to the South, it can go to the North. It is only one seat. If it’s an Igbo man, so be it, if it’s a Yoruba man, so be it. If it is a Northerner, a Hausa or Fulani, so be it. And I am saying that passionately.
“If we had promised rotation, so let’s practice rotation, if it’s not part of our Constitution, let’s face the reality. It is not really where the person comes from that matters, it is what he is able to do and deliver.”