2023: Northern Group Insists Presidency Remains Open Contest

By Ayodele Oni

The Northern Elders Forum, (NEF), a pressure political group, has declared that nobody can railroad the North on who to vote for as President in 2023.

It  has, therefore, rejected the position of the Southern Governors Forum, (SGF), that the South should produce the President come 2023.

This was one of the resolutions of the Southern Governors after their meeting in Lagos early this week.

The Forum, through its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, pointed out 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.

It described the decision of the southern Governors as “an expression of sentiment that could be best discussed within a political process.

“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.”

Dr Baba-Ahmed explained that the Southern Governors come from the two dominant parties: APC and PDP, saying that they must have some influence in those parties.

He noted that 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.

He opined that the democratic rights of Nigerian citizens to vote for a candidate cannot be snatched by threats or intimidation, stressing that politicians were becoming very lazy to think they will be given leadership in a manner that suggests an ultimatum.

The spokesman maintained that it would only support a candidate that will unite the country irrespective of where he or she comes from.

“The Southern Governors and their collaborators should not attempt to hoist an incompetent leadership on the nation in the name of rotation.

“The North will not accept this arrangement and shall be vehemently resisted.

“We specifically warn Kashim Shettima, Nasir El-Rufai and other Northern collaborators, of the futility of pursuing their personal exploits for the Vice Presidency through this impossible battle to hand over our future and the entire North to interests that see a united and numerically superior North as a major political obstacle.

“The extent of their collaboration would not go unnoticed, and in the fullness of time, they will be called to account.”

A number of Northerners, including El-Rufai, former Governors of Kano and Borno States, Senators Shekarau and Shettima, and former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, amongst others, have canvasses for a President of Southern extraction in 2003.