New Telegraph

Southern govs’ll resist northern candidates in 2023 –Akeredolu

Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, Oluwaro t i m i Akeredolu has disclosed that governors within the region would resist any parties aiming to field a northerner as a presidential candidate come 2023.

 

Akeredolu who is also the Governor of Ondo State said the Southern Governors across the three major political parties of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were unanimous in their resolution on the zoning of the presidency and would follow it to the letter.

 

The Governor stated this while featuring on a Channels Television programme, “Politics Today”.

 

The Southern Governors in their meeting in Lagos in July had said the presidency should be zoned to Southern Nigeria in 2023 when President Muhammadu Buhari would be completing his second term. They also reiterated it at their meeting in Enugu on Thursday.

 

He said: “If we have anything that we have agreed, that we have unanimity, it is the issue of the president in 2023. All of us, irrespective of our political party; there are three political parties that are in the Southern Governors Forum.

 

“We have the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the All Progressives Congress and we all agreed on this. “Any party that picks any candidate from the North will have to face all Southern governors because they will not support. But it has to come from the South.

 

We are saying that there must be rotational, justice, and fairness in it, that is what we are pushing. “If my President, Muhammadu Buhari has ruled for eight years, then it cannot be from the North again.

 

The next president must come from the South. We have not got to the stage where we will say let us give it to somebody who is competent.

 

“There are many people that are competent. We have competent people in the North as we have competent people in the South. So, the president can come from any part of the country.

 

But if you have occupied the position for eight years, then it has to rotate back to the South. “We can continue to do that until it gets to a point where the issue of zooming becomes an anathema.

 

But for now, zooming is it and those of us from the South are determined that the next president comes from the South.”

Read Previous

Anambra 2021: Parties trade words over plot to rig

Read Next

Ohanaeze salutes Ugwuanyi for hosting Southern governors

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *