Leaders of the Niger Delta, under the aegis of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF), have re-echoed the warning that any political party that fields a northern candidate will not enjoy the support of four regions the South-South, South-West, South-East and the Middle Belt in the 2023 presidential election.
The Niger Delta leaders warning was in a reaction to the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNGs) description of the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum and governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, as a threat to democracy for warning against political parties fielding northern candidates for next years presidential election.
PANDEF described the remark of the CNG over the governors statement, which he made while hosting a delegation of the Power Rotation Movement in Akure, as irrational and delusional.
The Forum, through its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, said through their utterances, the CNG and their ilk had demonstrated that they were benefitting from the social malaise plaguing the nation.
The body said: PANDEF wholly backs the statement of the governor and restates the resolution of the Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum at its meeting of January 13, 2022, that any political party that fields a northern candidate should not count on the support of the four regions in the 2023 presidential election.
It is simply unthinkable that anyone would consider another northern presidency after President Muhammadu Buharis eight years.
Organisations like the so-called Coalition of Northern Group (CNG) seem incorrigibly apathetic about the peace, unity and stability of Nigeria. They have, by their utterances, presented themselves as assemblages of unpatriotic individuals who perhaps benefit from the inglorious goings-on in the country.
PANDEF urges these groups to strive to appreciate the true tenets of democracy and stop the hallucination.
The North should not, and cannot, retain Nigerias presidency beyond 29th May, 2023 in the interest of national harmony. Defining the just and rightful demands for zoning and power rotation as threats and blackmail is a logical fallacy.
Nobody is threatening or attempting to intimidate anyone; the South and other patriotic Nigerians who are concerned about the future of Nigeria are simply insisting that the fundamental principles of fairness, justice and equity must be respected and upheld in the power equation of Nigeria.
Undoubtedly, no group or section of Nigeria can arrogate to itself or monopolise the presidency of Nigeria, it stated.
