2023: Lazy politicians demanding southern presidency – Northern elders

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has declared that the Northern region would not be forced to vote for any presidential candidate against their will in 2023.

Speaking against the backdrop of the clamour for power to return to the south with a southern presidency, NEF through its spokesperson, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said those championing the call for the southern presidency have to prove they deserve it by working for it.

He added that what the country needs at this time and going forward is not a northern or southern president but a Nigerian President.

“We don’t want another tribal or regional president,” he told The Nation in an interview in Kaduna.

According to Baba-Ahmed, Nigerian voters should be allowed to choose their leader in 2023 without undue pressure.

“Power does not return or go anywhere, power is determined by voters; this is why we have a democratic process, we are a democratic country,” he said in response to a question on the recent call by Southern governors that the presidency should return to the south after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.

” Voters should decide who they want to vote for.

“Since 1999, Nigerians have been voting; we voted a southern president in 1999 to 2007, we then voted a northern president in 2007 who ruled for only two years and a southern president completed his tenure and was voted again in 2011.

“Then, we voted a northern president in 2015. In all these times, it was the power of the voters that determined who becomes the President. Votes don’t carry regional connotations.

“The democratic process says Nigerians should exercise right, that every Nigerian above the age of 18 is qualified to vote for who they want to be president, that is it. You cannot arm-twist that provision.”

He noted that regardless of the region the political parties decide to pick their candidates from, it is the voters that will eventually decide who becomes the next leader of the country after President Buhari in 2023.

“If we have five parties and one of the parties fields a northern candidate and the northern candidate scores the highest votes, he becomes the President. You cannot force a voter to choose a candidate that is not his choice, just because the candidate comes from a particular region of the country.

“You cannot tie up northern voters completely and totally and say he must not vote for any party that fields a northerner for the position of the president. You need to persuade people, you need to do the hard work of politics.