A presidential aspirant on the platform of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Alhaji Mohammed Hayatudeen, has declared that the ongoing conversation around zoning is drawing Nigerians’ attention away from the urgent challenges threatening the nation’s survival.

Speaking on the Political Paradigm programme on Channels Television, he made a passionate case for refocusing the national discourse on what he described as the issues that truly matter: insecurity, economic collapse and the desperate need for job creation.

“Last week, 416 people were abducted and threatened with execution. What has that got to do with zoning? The thousands of our fellow citizens 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, the father who cannot send his child to school. What has any of that got to do with zoning?” He queried.

Hayatudeen argued that what Nigerians truly need are leaders defined not by geography, but by character, competence and empathy.

“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,” he said.

Hayatudeen was emphatic that Nigeria’s security crisis cannot be addressed in isolation.

He drew a direct line between decades of economic mismanagement and the rising tide of violence across the country.

“Nothing happens in a vacuum. There has to be an underlying cause,” he said, adding: “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.”

He dismissed suggestions that the current wave of insecurity is election-driven, insisting the data tells a different story.

“I am a numbers guy. I have compared the data with think tanks abroad and institutions within Nigeria. The evidence does not support that narrative,” he stated.

On his decision to fly the ADC flag, Hayatudeen, who was also a presidential aspirant on the platform of PDP, was clear: the party’s constitution, manifesto and leadership align with his vision for Nigeria.

“Their leaders are forthright, tenacious and experienced. They have the determination to mobilize everything required to contest and win this election at all levels,” he said.

He 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.

Hayatudeen also raised concern about what he described as the deliberate suffocation of 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,” he warned.