2019 : Battle over Presidency

- Muhammadu Buhari is yet to say whether or not he would seek a second term. But his teeming supporters across Nigeria want him to run. They are, however, unsure whether or not he would re-contest, especially because of his health condition.

However, I  heard that  other aspirants from the north are already working underground to actualize their aspirations. And one advantage they appear to be banking on is the seemingly lack of fund in the Buhari camp, to prosecute  electioneering, should Buhari even decide to run.
its known that apart from the fact that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is broke, the President’s friends and associates, who had contributed financially to his campaign in 2015, are not only broke, they are also complaining that they are not getting government patronage that would have helped them “recoup” the expenses they “incurred in 2015.
But, a few of Buhari’s friends and associates who are in government are of the view that funding would not pose any challenge to the President’s second term bid, arguing among other things that APC chieftains like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senate President, Bukola Saraki and ex-Rivers governor and Transport Minister, Rotimi Ameachi, did not contribute any financial war chest to the campaign in 2015, contrary to their claims. To this group of Buhari supporters therefore, even if the trio fails to make available funds to prosecute Buhari’s second term bid, it would not affect the prosecution of the project adversely.
Regardless, with less than two years to another presidential election, the north, which is likely to still produce the president, whether or not President Buhari runs, is already at war with itself ahead of the poll.
Only last week, former Plateau State governor and Senator representing Plateau North, Jonah Jang, accused the core north of rotating the presidency among its people each time the position was zoned to the north, insisting that it was the turn of the Middle Belt  to produce the President in 2019.
Specifically, Jang said: “We keep hearing that Presidency has been zoned to the north and one part of the north has cornered everything about the Presidency, they are passing the position from one person to the other, we in the North – Central, as they call us, have enjoyed nothing. But I only hope that somebody from the Middle Belt will come out strongly in the PDP, because the party has zoned the Presidency to the north, we are all northerners and by right it is the turn of the Middle Belt to produce President in 2019.”
But by last weekend, another federal lawmaker, Goni Bukar Lawan, from the North East, joined the fray, saying that it was the turn of the North East to produce the President in 2019. Unlike Jang, there was a caveat to his own proposition. He said the only reason the region would concede the position, was if President Buhari would be seeking a re-election.
But, if Buhari decides not to run, the North West zone should not be a contender for the All Progressives Congress, APC ticket, because it has produced six Heads of State, and that was more than its fair share of the Nigerian presidency, he remarked.
Lawan disclosed in 20Abuja that the North East was the most eligible part of the north that should produce a presidential candidate in 2019.
He further said that while the region was in total support of Buhari, because of the “love and empathy” he has shown to the region, it would insist on replacing him in 2019, should he decide not to run.