 Ahead of presidential primaries of the all-ruling All Progressive Congress, APC and the People's Democratic Party, PDP, for the emergence of a flag bearer, former Senate leader Senator Alindoume, APC Bonneau South, has said that it will be unfair, an injustice, and a betrayal of trust, and a gentleman's agreement if the APC zones the presidency to the North. Meanwhile, the Northern Youth Leaders Forum has said none of the Southern presidential aspirants on the platform of the People's Democratic Party, PDP, has the political will to tame Nigeria's current challenges. Well joining us to discuss this is former President Ohaniz Ndebo, Odozi Moodozi and political commentator Mosa Idris. And Juna Idris, it's good to have you join us. You're welcome. Yes. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you. Okay. Let's start with your thoughts on the power rotation agreement. Some people will call it a gentleman's agreement. Some other people would say that it's not necessarily constitutional and that at this point in time Nigerians need a good leader, not necessarily somebody from a region or a zone. What are your thoughts? Yeah. Thank you for having me. Two issues there. You can say out loud the issue of this is it's not constitutional, you should be able to say you want to rotate it's not constitutional. But the other one is the issue of a gentleman's agreement, which of course you know that that's what has been played out in Nigerian politics. What the politicians normally do, they try to play in the federal character into the affairs of a portioning political office. So as it could be, the number of political people who are present in the political domain are saying that power will shift. Others are saying power will shift. You should say power will shift and it will shift. What are you really saying? It's like you're not starting a particular session or a particular political party to deliberately speed power in the session of the country. As it is today, we all know that there are a lot of clamor for power to go to the south. Not only going to the south, but going to the southeast. If you now see that power will go to the southeast, how will you get power to go to the southeast? You see if we follow that, we ask that the southeast cannot begin from their political leaders. The governors here, for instance, have to come up together and begin to look for a political party of choice. They cannot come together and see how they need to get power to come to their room. But South Easterners belong to all political parties. I don't know which political party does not have a South Easterner. Whether it be a leader of thought or a leader of that party, we do have. I'm not sure that there is any political party that does not have a South Easterner or anybody in general from the south. You know, I can't really get you, but the point I was trying to make is that you see, there are two major political parties in Nigeria. The PDT and the ATC. As it is today, you can see that even if they have a loud party, you know, to go any part of the country. Which simply means that the high bidder will eventually take it. If the people of the north are able to get their act together, they will get the other party of country to support another candidate. If they are repressing from the south, they will be able to put their act together and play the normal politics that everybody will understand. Then of course the power will shift to the south. But as it is today, everybody wants to take a club out of the whole system. Not necessarily allowing, you know, part of the literally shift. I think that's the problem we're having today. These two major political parties are just watching the steps the other party will take. They are saying that, especially the PDT, they are saying that it is the turn of them not to actually take it. Because the Ubersunds have done it, the United States have done it. So it is not again to come back and take the ticket. What the PDT is saying is that, still the present players, the last ATMs have been done by the APC, that it will naturally go to the south. But one very serious issue here, that normally people will not want to play easily. Which of course, you know, eventually is going to come out. If the APC is going to take a candidate for instance from the south, where is it going to come from? From the south-west? Is it going to come from the south-east? It is coming from the south-west or south-south or south-east, means the entire south are going to produce a presidential candidate. By this I mean that the Christian candidates will naturally come out from the south. If that happens, then where is it not going to take their back presidential candidate? These are the issues. So that means that the North will have to decide, the types of decision have to take to actually play a buy. And if you go to the northern minority, of course, the Christian, you should not do what they call pedakaraka, because I have had other sections that claim that Muslim-Muslim ticket is not going to play out. If Muslim-Muslim ticket is not going to play out, it apparently means that a Christian minority from the north will have to come out to buy with the southern candidate now. So these are the issues. That is where real politics is going to play out. For PDP, as it is today, we know that they are clamoring for another candidate. Which, of course, is apparently going to be a Muslim candidate. And of course, the south now, either south east or south west, will not be looking for a candidate that will buy for the northern candidate, which of course will be a Christian. So these are the issues. But what I'm saying in effect like in all of this, what are we looking at? We are looking for a candidate that has electoral value, a candidate that can apparently get literally every, at least, 45 to 50 percent or 2,000. So I'm sorry, Mr. Idris, I just, I need to come in there. You seem to be talking about the mathematics of, you know, and you're talking about the votes here, which is very important. Don't get me wrong. But then at the core of all of this is the issue that Nigeria is facing. We have so many issues, whether it be insecurity, ethnic divisions, religious crisis, we have it all. Should we at this point just be looking at the mathematics of who can win votes as opposed to what Nigeria needs and who can unite us? Because if we have a uniter, then we can have half of our problem solved. But then again, the question is, what should we be prioritizing now? The votes or who needs to lead this country to where we want it to go to? Yes, at the time, I think Nigeria now should be looking for a candidate that can, I mean, that can be able to be passionate. A candidate that can, I mean, you know, carry virtually everybody, at least a total majority of people alone, not necessarily looking at ethnicity or religion. I'm only telling you that the salient point that I'm telling you, religion and ethnicity has to play out. For instance, most of the candidates who have come back from the North have actually come back from the North. They're not right now at the peak, because of part of the central. We know that these attitudes today have been unable to produce the presidential candidate anywhere. So you can see ethnicity is really going to come out. But on the larger, on the larger platform now, what you are looking at is probably a candidate that is still equal across both. So not necessarily ethnicity. These are the salient points that will eventually come out. That's why I was telling you that if APC is eventually going to get a southern candidate, then where is their vice presidential candidate going to come out from? Is he going to come out from the Christian minorities? Because here, you are trying to play out federal character. By this, I mean, with the station we are talking of, you cannot do a Muslim-Muslim or a Christian-Christian ticket as it is today, because most sections will not agree. I had a particular religious group saying that they will not allow for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But if that is the case, it may mean that you have to cut across both and begin to look for a candidate that could match up religiously, that could match up ethnicity-wise. Not necessarily putting this candidate away from one section of the country. That is what I'm trying to tell you. But I know that at the end of the day, you will be looking for the candidate that has electoral value. A candidate who can build bridges across both. Who can go to the south is known. Who can go to the east is known. I mean, politically now. These are the kind of candidates we are going to look for. Now, give us a very big country. And then, of course, after you take a look at all of these political considerations, then you have to look at the economic and security aspects of what is currently playing out today. Which candidate is going to come out to the world party and look at the present security issues of the economy that we're having today that you can really come out and begin to look at and turn the economy around. You know, once a candidate is able to play out like this, it simply means that they may likely take the ticket. But for today, as we are speaking, we are trying to get the country, we are trying to develop a political party through their primary to get a party that they feel that once they lift somebody up, they can actually, I mean, they can be sellable to the majority of the people. I just want to look at this today. You made mention of the fact that both political parties are watching each other to be able to make up their minds as to what they want to do. But then it looks like the People's Democratic Party is going to have its primaries before the All Progressive Congress, which means that whatever is the outcome of the PDP's primaries will determine what the outcome of the APC's primary is. I'm guessing. But then let's look at the people and what the people need right now. We've seen before now that the Southerners have continuously said we want power to come to the south. And you also rightly mentioned that earlier on. As we know that we have tensions already, how do we seal these gaps? If political parties are there to serve the people, shouldn't they be listening to what the people want? And the people here are not necessarily just members of their political parties, but people in regions, elder statesmen, leaders of thought. These, I mean, for example, PANDAF, Afeni Farah, the Middle Belt Forum, all of these people have come out to say that they will not support any political party who brings out a presidential candidate from the north. Should that not be a clue for political parties to rethink their position if they really want to win as you have started with the conversation? You talked about the numbers. Who's able to, who's sellable and who's able to win votes across boards. And I'm guessing that every political party should have that person, I'm guessing. Yeah, I didn't really get to you, but I understand what you're trying to say. Probably the view of the political zone, you know, the position of all the social cultural groups that are playing the theory, the Northern Elders, the ACS, and all of that. If you look at it, these groups are playing correctly. Afeni Farah is handling for his part to win the presidential candidate. While the Northern Elders, and of course the ACS, are probably looking for somebody to come from the north. But again, from section, and from between the big week, are saying that power should shift to the south. They have not really covered the terms to say exactly where they want power to shift to. Should power shift to the south, should this shift to the south, as it is today, I know that they will not support the presidential candidate from the east, going by the current political or situational event happening currently in the south. In one breath, the south east is calling for dismembering of the country. In another breath, they are calling for inclusion of the political arena in the country. And then again, they are talking of that. It is their thought. They begin to wonder what the day will be like. In my own take, I want to say that the south east should come up to play political games in this country, try to belong to the party of their choice, not necessarily playing actually original politics as they are doing currently today. But what they should do is to look at the party that they feel that they can belong to, and then begin to, you know, angle for political permission. One necessary thing that they have to take it, they have to start it, they have to be killing, they have to be burning, I make offices and none of that. I do not know if that is what the south east is really saying. Maybe this is your interpretation. I do not think that the south east is saying give us the tickets, they are saying zone it. And I think that that conversation, I am guessing that conversation should be between people from the south, whether it is going to go to the south west or the south east, that should be a conversation between people from the south. But the way you sound, it sounds like well we can't vote for the people from the south east because they are fighting. But can the south east or the south nests also say the same about what has been happening in the north? We had elections hold in the north even when there was fighting and killings. Is that a very good thing to say about people in the south east because of the uprising or whatever confusion you think is happening there? Should that be something that should write them off? Well, you see for me, if I take the information, I think when the south east, there was a time they met in Lagos. They included the south now, cutting across south south east and south west. They tried to look at the situation where they may have a common candidate. But most of the things that they had, didn't really get to the lack of the, to assuage their feelings of producing a common candidate. When they met in Port Harcourt and sometimes again in the south east, they had to try to attempt to get a candidate, a common candidate now. Rather than look for a way of bridging and trying to build bridges across the device, they were talking that power must shift. So these are some of the languages that they were using that we think is not political. A good position would not be talking of power must shift. But there have been all kinds of, there have been all kinds of rhetorics also coming from the north in previous elections. I don't think that the rhetorics would be a determinant or should be a spanner in the will of things. Should this not just be conversational and then let the people who want to do or who have the powers to decide, be the deciders and not necessarily the rhetorics. We've seen all kinds of rhetorics. It's in the heat of campaign season. People would say all kinds of things. But should that be a deterrence for people who want to support them or people who are asking for that support to be given finally? When you're understanding what I'm saying is that it is, as it is today, it is a party affair thing where we have not come to this general election yet. We have been talking of Europe's political party trying to now produce a candidate that could set his little energy of the people. But today, even because we're trying to get a candidate from the primary, they are now trying to sacrifice by trying to pull themselves together and make promises and shift ground and none of that. I'm saying that in the course of shifting ground, both the South East and the South South, we haven't played the relevant policies that people from the other device would make it look relevant for them to begin to say it is not time for them to support, you know, if it is Southern or if it's South East candidate. They are not even talking of South South candidate for this and like South South or whatever. They are talking of the South East candidate. That is what I was telling you that if you are talking of the South East candidate does not, as it is today, believe in Nigeria. If you believe that, look at what is happening with the canoe and the killings that are currently going on today. The thing is that we are on the side of two. What do they want from Nigeria? Do they still want to pull from Nigeria one? And if they really want to remain in Nigeria, then they have to come and play politics. I don't think you have to rule here that the South East candidate today, President Kennedy, is not right enough for them to begin to argue for. What they could get easily and that has to be also an articulate task. They have to be able to get narrowly a presidential candidate. All right. Mr. Idris, unfortunately we are out of time. I would have loved if we had Mordo Zihia. Unfortunately, we could not connect with him. But thank you so much. Musa Idris is a political commentator. Thank you so much for speaking with us. Unfortunately, time is up. All right. Well, I want to say thank you to all of you who have been part of the conversation, plus politics returns tomorrow at 7 p.m. I am Mary Anna Cohn. Enjoy the rest of your evening.