September 20, (THEWILL) – The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has again rejected the position of the Southern governors that the 2023 presidency should be zoned to the Southern part of the country.
The position of NEF was coming barely 72 hours after the Southern governors insisted the south must produce the next president in 2023.
THEWILL reports the Southern Governors Forum had on Thursday risen from their meeting in Enugu to repeat calls for the president to revert to the South in 2023, just as they threw their weight behind the collection of VAT by state governments, among other resolutions.
However, spokesperson of the NEF, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said the North was not for sale and that Northerners are not second-class citizens of Nigeria, as such the region will not accept to play second fiddle when the region has the population to vie for the top political position and win.
Dr. Baba-Ahmed spoke this at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria while delivering the keynote address at the inaugural edition of Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organised by the students wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG).
While urging the students to be proud of who they are as Northerners, he also challenged them not to accept being treated as second-class citizens in their own country.
Speaking about the 2023 general elections and the agitations for power shift to the South, Baba-Ahmed said the heavens will not fall if a northerner is again elected the next president of Nigeria.
He said the North was not for sale and that Northerners will surprise those waiting for them to queue up in 2023 and be given money in exchange for their votes, adding that anyone who does not want a northerner as president should leave the country if one emerges.
“We will lead Nigeria the way we have led Nigeria before; whether we are president or vice president, we will lead Nigeria. We have the majority of the votes and democracy says vote whom you want. Why should we accept a second-class position when we know we can buy forms and contest for first-class and we will win?
“Why does anybody need to threaten us and intimidate us? We will get that power, but be humble because power comes from God. We inherited leadership; being honest is not being stupid.
“There are clearly Nigerians who believe that because the economy of the North has already crumbled and we are running away from insecurity, we are politically vulnerable – they think they can buy us for 2023. They are making a mistake.
“The North has pride; we are humble enough to know that we are going to run Nigeria with other people but we are not going to play second fiddle to anybody. We may not have the most robust economy, there are people who are trying to strangulate us even more than we are being strangled. We are ready for this
“We will consider every economic adversity, challenge; we will fix the Northern economy and we are the only one who can fix this Northern economy. For that reason, we are not for sale. We are in the process of rebuilding the North”, he said.
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