2023: Northern Elders Give Two Conditions For Southern President

The Northern Elders Forum, NEF has laid down two strong conditions for the body to support a southern presidential candidate for the 2023 General Election.

The body’s resolution followed the recent demand by Southern governors that the next president of the country after President Muhammadu Buhari must be a southerner.

The NEF spokesman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed reacting to the agitation in an interview on Channels Television laid the two conditions to be that the South must give a convincing reason on what the North would benefit and second, the South must produce a strong candidate for the position.

Baba-Ahmed speaking on behalf of the Northern Elders Forum, said: “Southerners will have to convince the northerners on what they stand to benefit if they shift power to the south.

“You read in between the lines of their well-crafted communique that says that they want basically a southern presidency. It is not wrong. That means the North needs to yield the presidency to the southern part of the country. There is nothing wrong with that.”

“The problem is the manner it is being pursued this time by people who were elected on the basis of the constitution, who understand that politics is about getting up and convincing people rather than just sitting down and say ‘we want this, we want that.’ That’s wrong,” the Northern Elders Forum’s spokesman said.

“Two, they must know that the manner they are doing this, not what they are looking for, but the manner in which they are doing it is likely to cause more problems for them than solve the problems.”

“But the problem is to get the North to say, ‘Ok, show us why it is better. Show us why a southern presidency is the best for the North and the rest of Nigeria.’ This is a democratic country. Citizens vote. Nigerians, irrespective of where they are, will vote. Political parties have to do the hard work,” he said on behalf of the Northern elders.

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