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A Pan-Nigeria group Reset Nigeria Agenda (RNA) has joined the campaign for the complete restructuring of the Nigerian political and economic system with a call to Nigerians to consider the zoning of the 2023 Presidential ticket to the North East region of the country.

According to the group, in a press release signed by its Protem Director, Auwal Tahir Maude (ATM) on Friday and sent to newsheadline247, the restructuring of Nigeria would suit best  if the nation can return to the basics; if all political parties can think beyond partisan ethnic cleavages and consider the choice of presidential candidates from the North East just as the two major political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) fielded candidates ONLY from the South West region in 1999 in order to pacify the SW aftermath of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections.

“We need to state in unmistakable terms that the North Eastern region has been greatly disadvantaged when it comes to the presidential position in Nigeria since independence.

“For the records, the closest a North Eastern leader emerged in Nigeria was in 1966 when Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was elected the Prime Minister of Nigeria, and this was in a Power sharing arrangement with another great leader, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was the President of the country.

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Successive military administrations have thrown up leaders from all parts of the country: South East (Aguiyi Ironsi); North Central (General Yakubu Gowon, General Babangida, General Abdusalam Abubakar); North West (General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, General Sanni Abacha); South West (General Olusegun Obasanjo) except from the North East.

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“Since 1999 however, the office of the president has rotated between both the South and the North. While the South had a combined fourteen years superintending over the affairs of the nation in presidential capacity (8 years of President Obasanjo and 6 years of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan). If President Buhari completes his two terms mandate, the North would have had a combined ten years in presidential position (2 years of President Yar’Adua and 8 years of President Buhari).

“Nigerians have limited understanding about the real configuration of their nation, and true federalism is hinged on a great knowledge about what constitutes the various geopolitical regions.

“Far beyond ethnic and geographical cleavages, Nigeria needs a leader for the Nation irrespective of where such originated from. We are in the nick of building a nation, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that we look for things that bind us rather than all those things that seek to promote our disunity.

“If we really need to set out on a path of unity and resetting the political DNA of Nigeria, it is trite that we go back to where we started from. Let us create a bond of common brotherhood, concession and understanding. And we would have started on the path of engendering true federalism and restructuring.”

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