Obasanjo Begins Shopping for Buhari's Replacement Ahead of 2019

   
    If Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has his way President Muhammadu Buhari will be a one term President.

  Obasanjo according to multiple online reports, has  picked two former Northern Governors to replace Buhari; though he is yet to decide which of the two men it will be. Obasanjo's two picks are former governors of Jigawa and Kano, Sule Lamido and Rabiu Kwankwaso.
 Sources privy to the political situations in the north told NAIJ.com in the afternoon of Monday, January 23, 2017 that 2019 was one of the issues discussed when former President Goodluck Jonathan visited Obasanjo on Friday, January 20.

    “I can tell you that part of the discussion between Obasanjo and Jonathan centred on the 2019 election and the need to make the PDP stronger as an opposition party even though baba has decided to be a statesman.

    “He has not categorically mentioned or favoured anybody as a possible replacement for Buhari, but I can assure you that he has a soft spot for Lamido, the former governor of Jigawa. There is this fear that Buhari cannot continue after 2019. He is daily becoming weak and the weight of the country’s challenges is very heavy,” the source from the north said.

    When contacted, the national president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said that both Lamido and Kwankwaso are stooges to Obasanjo.
      
In the same vein, the former president has also made a subtle case for other geo- political zones to produce Nigeria’s President in the interest of justice and fairness.

according to him, since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the South East region is yet to produce the country’s President, while the Southwest, North and minority South – South have had shots at the Presidency at different times.

 Obasanjo said it was his personal view that the South East people deserve to produce the country’s President just as the Ogun West Senatorial District in his home state should be given the opportunity to produce the state Governor.

He noted that injustice and marginalisation are the instigators of conflicts along ethnic and regional lines in the country.

“Irrespective of the thinking of the people ahead of 2019, I personally think that South-East should have a go at the Presidency too.

“The same is happening here. If Ijebu and Egba have produced the Governor, it is only fair and just to allow the Yewa or Ogun West to also produce governor. Or else, one day, they will also stand up and take up arms against this injustice against them. That is my personally position on this,” the ex- President said.