…Congratulate Tinubu
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF) has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for staying true to his promise of non-interference in the process of electing the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, (APC).
According to the group, given the president’s earlier reported request to the APC governors to allow him to pick his successor, SMBLF considers the process leading to the emergence of the APC‘s presidential flag bearer as reasonably transparent, fair and credible.
The Forum congratulated former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on clinching the APC presidential ticket, following the heart-warming contest.
While noting that his emergence as the presidential flag bearer of the APC satisfies the Forum’s imploration to major political parties in the country to present southern presidential candidates for the 2023 elections in observance of the principle of rotation and zoning of key political offices, especially the presidency, between the North and the South, which has been a sine qua non in the nation’s political progression.
The group, in an issued press statement yesterday, signed by, Amb. Okey Emuchay, for Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Comrade Jare Ajayi for Afenifere, and Dr. Isuwa Dogo for Middle-Belt Forum, maintained that though SMBLF had preferred the presidential ticket to go to the South-East zone, based on justice, fairness and political inclusiveness, the Forum wished Bola Tinubu well and urged him to be magnanimous in victory.
The SMBLF said it was particularly impressed by the nationalistic essence demonstrated by the APC governors and political leaders of the Northern states, who maintained and followed through on their earlier resolution that the party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election should come from the southern part of the country; despite the melodrama orchestrated by the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on the eve of the party’s Special Convention.
The Forum anticipated that the Northern Governors and political leaders would prove the same attitude of patriotic resolve during the main presidential election in February 2023.
SMBLF likewise commended the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, (SAN), for his principled insistence on the rotation of the 2023 presidency to the South, unlike some of his colleagues who vacillated.
The group reiterated its call on the people of Southern Nigeria, the Middle-Belt region and all well-meaning Nigerians to, as a hallowed responsibility to the nation, vote for only southern presidential candidates in the 2023 election, in the national interest.
