Abdul’aziz Yari, who heads the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress, has cautioned against demands for the presidency to be reserved for someone from the northern part of Nigeria in the next election.
He spoke on Sunday during an interaction with senior Islamic clerics at the Bauchi home of the late Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi.
The gathering was organised as part of the council’s outreach to influential groups and individuals ahead of its planned political activities.
As part of the tour, the delegation had earlier travelled to Jos in Plateau State, where it visited Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir to express sympathy over the death of the National Treasurer of JIBWIS.
The campaign team has continued its nationwide outreach, meeting with prominent figures and other groups considered important to the political process.
Yari, while addressing the clerics in Bauchi, said making regional origin a condition for occupying the presidency could create further divisions within the country.
He said, “If we say that nobody is going to rule Nigeria except somebody from the North, we have divided ourselves.
“It is pertinent that when we are together as a country and united, leaders will come from different parts of the country.
“In Nigeria, we have started figuring out how to maintain our unity and equality, which is leadership coming from different parts of the country.
“When a President is elected from the North, another President should be elected from the South. That is the solution to our diversity.”
He further appealed for an arrangement in which Nigerians from various regions would have the opportunity to produce the nation’s leader, saying such an approach would help strengthen togetherness.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Abubakar, the APC candidate for governor in Bauchi State, told the gathering that President Bola Tinubu had maintained a relationship with the late Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi.
According to Abubakar, Tinubu personally came to Bauchi after the Islamic scholar passed away to mourn with his followers.
The former governor subsequently asked the people of Bauchi to vote for Tinubu again and give their backing to APC candidates contesting at different levels in the coming elections.
Abubakar also spoke about the deceased cleric, describing Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi as a prominent figure whose counsel had been highly valued by people across the state.
