July 07, (THEWILL) – Some interest groups in the North have rejected the call for presidential power to shift to the South in 2023.
They said the rotation of the position of President was not a democratic tradition and that interested aspirants for the position should not be excluded.
However, Benue State’s Governor Samuel Ortom, from the North Central Region, applauded the Southern Governors’ Forum for their position on the rotation of the presidency between the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria, beginning from 2023.
THEWILL reports that governors of the 17 states in Southern Nigeria under the aegis of the Southern Governors’ Forum had on Monday declared that the next President of Nigeria must emerge from the Southern part of the country.
The Governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, also lauded them for backing their May 11 Asaba declaration against open grazing with the resolve to legally prohibit nomadic cattle rearing.
Ortom said: “Your decision to enact laws to ban open grazing of livestock in the region is a bold and patriotic move that will bring an end to the lingering crisis caused by armed herdsmen in the region”
“The resolution conforms to the global best practice of animal husbandry, and Nigeria should not be left an exception.”
The Governor also said he believes that only equity, fairness and justice can strengthen the unity of Nigeria, adding that all citizens should be given a sense of belonging so as to reduce tensions across the country.
Ortom re-echoed his call on the Federal Government to respect the 1999 Constitution (as amended) regarding Fundamental Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Federal Character.
He restated his commitment to speaking out against injustice and quoted Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who stated that: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
He reaffirmed his belief in Nigeria’s unity and expressed optimism that the country will overcome its current challenges and emerge stronger as a great nation.
Conversely, the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) said Northerners in the country will not condone anything that will limit the franchise or freedom of choice of the region, saying Northerners have the democratic right to choose who should be the President in 2023.
The forum, through its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said the call by the Southern governors is not new, adding that as democrats and politicians who have risen through the political process, the governors should know that political offices are not given or acquired by force.
Baba-Ahmed said there is a constitutional process in place to become President and such process should not be infringed upon.
“Democrats or governors, or those occupying constitutional offices should understand that politics is about persuasion, not seeking shortcuts to power without working for them. North is the target of the Southern governors and they should create a conducive atmosphere for it,” he said.
He stated that a part of the country cannot order others against their will or against the tenets of democracy.
According to Baba-Ahmed, Northerners are used to voting for Southerners as they voted for the late MKO Abiola, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said the 2023 presidency should not be all about blackmailing Northerners.
Baba-Ahmed submitted: “Nothing should infringe on the right of Northerners and Northern voters to vote for who they want in 2023. We will not condone anything that will limit Northerners in terms of the democratic right to vote who they want.
“Northerners have the democratic right to choose who should be the nation’s President in 2023.
“The basis of democracy is adhering to its principles, but if you circumvent those rights through intimidation or blackmail, then you are undermining democratic process and principles. It is wrong. The governors should know that; they know what politics involves.
“Northerners should have freedom of choice. We will not encourage anyone that will create an atmosphere that compels Northerners to vote for who they don’t want”, Baba-Ahmed told newsmen. He added that the basis of democracy is adhering to its principles.”
On his part, the immediate past Secretary General of Northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, declared that there was no national consensus for the rotation of the President between North and Southern Nigeria.
Sani argued that President Muhammadu Buhari contested against former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, and that former President Goodluck Jonathan was not expected to contest for the presidency after completing the tenure of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s tenure in the spirit of rotation, but that he contested and won.
Sani, who was also a former ACF spokesman, added that in 2019, about 76 candidates from the South contested alongside about six candidates from the North.
He said: “If there is any national consensus about rotation of the President between the North and the South that is binding on political parties, such scenarios would not play out.
“The agitation by Southern governors that the President of Nigeria should come from the Southern part of the country in 2023 ignores the fact that it is a party affair. This is precisely because there is no national consensus that the President should be rotated between the North and the South.
“That accounts for why General Buhari contested against President Obasanjo in 2003. Yes, President Obasanjo wanted to enthrone politics of identity symbolised by the rotation of the President between North and South when he brought President Yar’Adua in 2007.”
Also, the apex Northern youth socio-political organisation, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, has cautioned the Southern governors to stop blackmailing the Northern region over the 2023 presidency, saying the group had no interest in power rotation between the two regions.
President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, told newsmen on Tuesday that Nigeria is a democratic nation and every Nigerian has the right to contest for the highest office in the land, and not by threats and intimidation.
AYCF vowed to expose anti-North elements who are working against Northern interests for the South in 2023.
Shettima said: “We will resist intimidation, blackmail and threats ahead of the 2023 presidential election. Southern governors cannot blackmail North; they should mobilise and contest for the resident just like any other Nigerian and stop intimidating Northerners.
“We are in a democracy and everyone is free to contest for President in 2023 and allow the electorate to make their choice.
“We have some Northerners who are working for the South and we will soon expose them.”
On its part, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), in a statement by its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, accused the Southern governors of ganging up against the North.
The Coalition said the North would not accept the imposition of any candidate on the region.
Describing the proposed anti-open grazing law as retrogressive, the group said it threatens the legitimate presence of pastoral communities in the South.
CNG said: “Their (Southern governors) support for treasonable felony, by the subtle endorsement of the activities of such criminal separatist forces, led by the likes of Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu, by warning the nation’s security agencies against operating in the region without obtaining permission from the governor of the particular state is a matter that must be given the seriousness it deserves.
“It is ironic for such leaders of a society that delights in unleashing mayhem against fellow citizens of other regions at the slightest of pretexts, to expect the other sections of the country to trust them or any of their protégés with presidential powers.
“The Southern governors’ resolutions in that regard have further exposed a deliberate attempt to impose a contentious system of a rotational presidency that turns all democratic norms and accepted indices of our national demography on their heads; a rotation system that is clearly aimed at achieving dubious political goals; and one clearly designed to weaken the North.
“The Southern governors’ threat to impose and enforce this undemocratic leadership selection process on the North, irrespective of its advantage of numerical superiority and inherent political sophistry, is part of a calculated design to continuously weaken our region politically and pauperise it economically.
“This conspiracy is actively perpetrated with the connivance of some Northerners and accommodated by the personal ambition of a few of those that present themselves as Northern political leaders.
“Inevitably, the immediate trigger to the Lagos pronouncements was the collaborative assurances by the former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, and the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, given just two days earlier.”
It added that only a candidate who is competent and can unite and secure Nigeria should be President in 2023, irrespective of where he or she comes from.
“We warn the Southern governors and their Northern collaborators that any attempt to ride on the back of such gratuitous insults to democratic fair play and crass political opportunism, to hoist incompetent leadership on the nation in the name of rotation would not be accepted and shall be vehemently resisted,” CNG added.
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