Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has rejected the position of the Southern governors that the 2023 presidency should be zoned to the Southern part of the country.
The forum’s position was made in a statement issued yesterday by its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
NEF said as far as the North was concerned, the idea that it would be threatened, intimidated or blackmailed into yielding an office which ought to be settled democratically is not acceptable.
“We are running a democratic government and decisions over where the next president comes from are basically decisions that will be made by voters exercising their rights to choose which candidate best serves their interest,” it said.
The forum explained that the southern governors come from the two dominant parties: APC and PDP, saying that they must have some influence in those parties.
NEF urged the southern governors to influence their parties to zone the presidency to southern states and then work to convince Nigerian voters from all parts of the country to vote for that candidate.