The Southern groups, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, Afenifere and the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), in separate interviews with Saturday Tribune, warned that any move by the North to use the current incumbency to retain power might have dire consequences.
However, the North, speaking through the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), told Saturday Tribune that there is nothing wrong if the next president is also a Northerner like the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari.
The umbrella body of Ijaw youths in Nigeria, the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), has warned that alleged plans by the North to retain the Presidency beyond 2023 against the existing rotation of the post between the North and the South is unhealthy and would amount to political suicide.
The IYC said the permutations suggesting that the core North is unwilling to relinquish power, thereby relegating other geopolitical zones, would further divide the country.
In an interview with Saturday Tribune, the national president of IYC, Mr Pereotubo Oweilaemi, said “we know the core North is seriously contemplating retaining power come 2023. This will be political suicide.”
Oweilaemi, in the exclusive interview, noted that while the plan might be achievable “because of the flawed political structures in the country,” it was a way to alienate some already marginalised geopolitical zones and further divide the country.
“If we all value the unity of this country, I don’t think it is proper to sideline and segregate some parts of the country in the affairs of governance.
“I am not a prophet but I must say that this continued political alienation of the South East will definitely, one day, dismember this country,” Oweilaemi said.
Also, Afenifere described any attempt by any section of the country to hold on to the presidency at the expense of others as a recipe for “dislocation.”
In a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere said any attempt to toy with a third term or for the North to hold on to power beyond 2023 would result in a social disequilibrium that would not augur well for the country.