Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, a presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, says debates around zoning the party’s presidential ticket cause a distraction from important issues and challenges bedevilling the nation.

In a statement on Thursday, the economist and public policy expert said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from. What matters is that you have the capacity, the skill, the vision and the deep empathy to deliver for every single Nigerian.”

“Last week, 416 people were abducted and threatened with execution; thousands of our fellow citizens have been killed over the last three years. What has that got to do with zoning? The mother who cannot afford to buy food at the market, and the father who cannot send his child to school. What has any of those got to do with zoning?” he queried.

He further noted that Nigerians need leaders who are not defined by geography, but by their character, competence and empathy.

“Nothing happens in a vacuum. There has to be an underlying cause,” he said. “The economy has been under-managed and has underperformed for at least 20 years. Consequently, poverty has risen five or six times within this period, and today, approximately 110 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line,” Mr Hayatu-Deen stated.

The ADC presidential aspirant also dismissed insinuations that the current wave of insecurity in the country, particularly in the northern region, is election-driven, insisting that data says otherwise.

Concerning his decision to fly the ADC flag, the aspirant said the party’s constitution, its manifesto and members of its leadership align with his vision for Nigeria. 

Mr Hayatu-Deen added that the ADC’s focus on the cost of living crisis, insecurity, job creation and poverty eradication reflects the priorities of ordinary Nigerians and his own.

The ADC presidential hopeful accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of using the instrument of the state to deliberately suffocate Nigeria’s political space.

“What the government has done, through surrogates and the instruments of state, is to muzzle the political space, making it impossible for Nigerians to exercise genuine freedom of choice,” Mr Hayatu-Deen alleged.