Our Reporter
Northern Elders Forum, NEF has disagreed with Southern governors’ position that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the South.
Speaking through its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, NEF said the North would not be threatened or blackmailed into yielding a democratically elected office.
He said- “As far as the North is concerned, the idea that it will be indirectly threatened or intimidated or blackmailed into yielding an office which ought to be settled democratically is not acceptable.”
Baba-Ahmed described the decision of the southern governors as an expression of sentiment which could be best discussed within a political process.
“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,” he said.
According to him, “The southern governors come from the two dominant parties; APC and PDP, and they must have some influence in those parties. The way it should be done is that the southern governors should 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.”