Fashola Hints At 2023 Presidency…Vindicates Saraki

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, may have just vindicated Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) was planning to zone the 2023 presidency to South West instead of the South East region as widely believed.

Saraki, it would be recalled, had alleged a grand plot by the ruling APC to return power to South West against the general perception that President Buhari would hand the presidency to the South East if he gets the region’s support to return for second term in office.

The Senate President had after defecting from the APC said in response to the party’s criticisms against him: “The point of disagreement between Tinubu and I is that while I expressed my worries that there is nothing on ground to assure me that the administrative style and attitude would change in the next four years in a manner that will enable us to deliver the positive changes we promised to our people, he (Tinubu) expressed a strong opinion that he would rather ‘support a Buhari on the hospital stretcher’ to get a second term because in 2023, power will shift to the South-west. This viewpoint of Tinubu’s was not only expressed to me but to several of my colleagues. So much for acting in national interest.

Saraki had added that, “It is clear that while my own decision is based on protecting the collective national interest, Tinubu will rather live with the identified inadequacies of the government for the sake of fulfilling and preserving his presidential ambition in 2023.”

Fashola however gave credence to the Senate President’s claim on Thursday when he urged the people of the South West to vote Buhari in 2019 so power would return to the region in 2023.

The minister made the plea to residents of the region during a special town hall meeting on infrastructure organised by the ministry information and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

Fashola said at the meeting, “Do you know that power is rotating to the south-west after the completion of Buhari’s tenure if you vote for him in 2019?

“A vote for Buhari in 2019, means a return of power to the south-west in 2023. I am sure you will vote wisely,” he said.

Meanwhile, some South East leaders had on different occasions recently urged people in the region to massively support President Buhari in the 2019 presidential election to secure Igbo presidency after Buhari’s second term in office.