It’s foolish to sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and demand power shift – El-Rufai

Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna says nobody should assume that they can sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and demand power shift.

He stated this in a chat with select journalists after the meeting of northern governors in Kaduna on Monday.

At the meeting, the Northern Governors Forum had said it was against power shift, stating that the rotational presidency was against Nigeria’s constitution.

This position was in reaction to the demand of their Southern counterparts who have demanded that the region should produce Nigeria’s next president.

El-Rufai said no one should assume that they can sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and decide what the north should do or who the north should vote for.

He said if the south wants power, it should be prepared to sit with the north, dialogue and negotiate then agree on who should be voted but not use compulsion to demand power shift, Daily Trust reports.

“We are not saying there cannot be rotational presidency, it can be done but you have to come and sit with the politicians in the north and dialogue and then we agree to give our support to the south but no one has the right to sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and say whether northerners want it or not, they must relinquish power to the south, that is wrong, it is not how we do politics and in fact, it is foolish.”