The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has reacted to the position of the Southern governors that the South should produce the President in 2023.
The 17 Governors from the Southern part had demanded that the region produces the country’s next president.
“The Forum reiterates its commitment to the politics of equity, fairness and unanimously agrees that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between Southern and Northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the Southern Region,” they had said.
Reacting to the decision, the Northern Elders through its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said the decision can’t be accepted, noting that it’s the electorates that will determine who will control the affairs of the country in 2023.
Baba-Ahmed reminded the governors that Nigeria was practicing a democratic office and not a rotational office.
He observed that as far as the North was concerned, the idea that it would be indirectly threatened or intimidated or blackmailed into yielding an office which ought to be settled democratically is not acceptable.
“We are running a democratic government and decisions over where the next president comes from are basically decisions that will be made by voters exercising their rights to choose which candidate best serves their interest,” Baba-Ahmed said.
According to him, the way it should be done was that the southern governors should influence their parties to zone the presidency to southern states and then work to convince Nigerian voters from all parts of the country to vote for that candidate.
