The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, (SMBLF), has condemned the schemes by the two major political parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress, (APC), and the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), to foist a northern president on the nation, calling on delegates to their national conventions to be sure to vote for only southern presidential aspirants.
The forum, under the leadership of Pa Edwin Clark, met in Abuja on Thursday to deliberate on the state of the nation, particularly the worsening insecurity, the 2023 General Elections; and what they termed the recent troubling developments in the polity.
In a communiqu issued at the end of the meeting, made available to the media on Friday, the forum maintained its stance for power to go to the South in the 2023 election in consonance with the Principle of Zoning and Power Rotation between the North and the South. According to it, this is the basis on which the Nigerian Federation has, since Independence, been premised.
The communiqu reiterated that the zoning and rotation of the Presidency of Nigeria are fundamental to the future existence of the country.
The Forum, therefore, condemned in the strongest terms, obvious schemes by the two main political parties, the PDP and APC, ahead of their presidential primaries, to jettison the time-honoured principle of rotation, which has traditionally served as the glue holding the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The communiqu warned that the reported permutations by the main political parties to foist Northern presidential candidates on the nation would be a grave misadventure, with grim consequences on national concord and harmony.
It further called on all delegates of all political parties, and true lovers of democracy, as a sacred obligation, to reject presidential aspirants, or candidates from the North, and only vote for those from the South in the Party Primaries.
The leaders commended prominent northern politicians who have maintained support for the emergence of a southern president.
On the worsening state of insecurity and rampaging violence across the country, the Forum warned that Nigeria is plummeting into a state of total disorder and lawlessness, with attacks on innocent people resulting in kidnapping, loss of lives and destruction of properties happening in different parts of the country almost daily.
The communiqu was signed by Chief Clark (Leader), Chief Ayo Adebanjo (Leader, Afenifere), Dr. Pogu Bitrus (President-General, Middle-Belt Forum), Professor George Obiozor (President-General, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide) and Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien (National Chairman, PANDEF).
