The Northern Elders Forum on Tuesday commended the governors
of the region for rejecting rotation of the 2023 Presidency to the south as
being clamoured by the Southern Governors Forum.
The Spokesman of the NEF, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, while
speaking at a press conference in Kaduna on Tuesday, described the demand by
the Southern Governors on the 2023 Presidency as unacceptable.
Baba-Ahmed said the southern governors constituted a threat
to the nation’s democracy with their demand.
According to him, any president to be elected should be done
democratically and not through threats and intimidations.
He said, “We had raised the issues two weeks ago, but we are
happy that the Northern Governors have also spoken out that. Rotational
presidency is not located in the constitution of Nigeria, but this does not
make it illegal, or only means that it can only be handled at the political
level.
“We drew attention to the fact that there are tendencies the
17 Governors of the South to gang up and create a bi-partisan assault against
the North on virtually all issues from open grazing, rotational presidency and
other issues.
“The Southern Governors represent a serious threat to the
democratic process. What the democratic process recognises is that there are
political parties, there are candidates and there are voters. Whoever emerges
as the candidate should be the product of negotiation and expression of popular
will.”
Baba-Ahmed stated that the NEF had wanted Nigerians from the
Southern part to recognise the fact that the democratic values were still on
the ground and sacrosanct.
According to him, democratic values are not negotiable and,
as such, southern governors cannot use expressions like ‘presidency must move
here or there’.
He said, “There can be a Southern president; there can be a
Northern president and nobody should build boundaries around which region
produces the President. What is important is that it must be a committed and a
very competent Nigerian; a Nigerian everybody can identify with and not a
product of region, religion or tribe.”
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