2023 Presidency: South will lobby North – Diri

Bayelsa Governor, Douye Diri, yesterday, said southern politicians would lobby their northern counterparts in the quest for a southern President in 2023.

 Diri stated this in a television interview monitored  in Yenagoa against the backdrop of the resolution passed by Southern Governors Forum that the region must produce the presidency in 2023.

“At this point what we need to do is lobbying. We have taken a position and our position is a political position. We don’t need to impose it on people. Now we have to talk to people, lobby them and make them reason with us why our position would be beneficial to the country and for the smooth power transfer from one region to the other.”

Diri said the North had what was required to produce the President, the same with the South.

He, however, said for both north and south to live in peace and harmony, there was the need to rotate the presidency.

“We have this relationship and understanding, for eight years – that is two terms by our constitution –  one region would be there and then the next eight years, it would transfer to another region. Now we are seeing the last term of President Buhari and it is only usual, normal and acceptable to us from the South that this would be reciprocated by our brothers from the North and that is why we took that decision yesterday to say in 2023, the President should actually come from the South.

“Whatever we have done is not constitutional backed up. It is not constitutional that the President has to rotate between the North and South, it is more of a gentleman agreement and to enhance peaceful coexistence and for us to have a democracy that all the groups and ethnic nationalities and all regions would key in and buy in.”

Diri also warned that the definition of a host community in the just passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly was a time bomb if not properly addressed.

He restated the position of governors of the southern states that it was an injustice to allot three per cent of oil revenue for host communities that bear the brunt of exploration and exploitation activities.

He said it was unthinkable and unacceptable to people of the South that a provision of 30 per cent profit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was inserted in the controversial bill for “frontier exploration” in areas that were not clearly specified.

The governor  frowned at the definition of oil producing communities and host communities to include areas where pipelines are laid.

He called for a reversal of such proposal, saying it is a time bomb that if not properly addressed could create avoidable crises.