But the ACF and CNG insisted that there is nothing wrong in political parties fielding northern candidates for the 2023 presidential election.
The two prominent northern groups denied the existence of any national consensus as regards the issue of zoning or rotational presidency.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune in separate interviews, the Secretary General of the ACF, Mr Anthony Sani, said the North reserved the right to drum up support for its preferred contenders in a multiparty democracy like Nigeria’s which, he noted, gave only political parties the exclusive right to present candidates for elective offices.
“No groups outside political parties can present candidates for elective offices. And in the absence of a national consensus on rotation and zoning of political offices like the offices of the president, vice president and governor and deputy governor, political parties are at liberty to design their game plans which include which zone their presidential candidates and their sidekicks will come from.
 
“I say there is no national consensus on rotation and zoning that is binding on political parties. There is no such national consensus. General [Muhammadu] Buhari would not have contested against President [Olusegun] Obasanjo in 2003 and [former] President [Goodluck] Jonathan would not have contested against Buhari in 2011 and in 2015.
“You will also notice that in the 2019 general election, presidential candidates were fielded by political parties from both the North and the South.