*We’ll oppose Northern candidates
The Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, has said the Southern governors would not support any political party that fielded a northerner as a presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
Akeredolu said this while featuring on a Channels Television programme, “Politics Today”.
He declared that the Presidency cannot return to the North after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, “the Southern governors from three major political parties of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were unanimous in their resolution on the zoning of the presidency and would follow it to the letter.
Recall that the governors at their meeting in Lagos in July insisted that the presidency should be zoned to Southern Nigeria in 2023 after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Akeredolu declared that “If we have anything that we have agreed, that we have unanimity, it is the issue of president in 2023. All of us, irrespective of our political party; there are three political parties that are in the Southern Governors Forum.
“We have the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the All Progressives Congress and we all agreed on this.
“Any party that picks any candidate from the North will have to face all Southern governors because they will not support.
“But it has to come from the South. We are saying that there must be rotational, justice, and fairness in it, that is what we are pushing.
“If my president, Muhammadu Buhari has ruled for eight years, then it cannot be from the North again.
“The next president must come from the South. We have not got to the stage where we will say let us give it to somebody who is competent.
“There are many people that are competent. We have competent people in the North as we have competent people in the South.
“So, the president can come from any part of the country. But if you have occupied the position for eight years, then it has to rotate back to the South.
“We can continue to do that until it gets to a point where the issue of zooming becomes an anathema.
The Ondo State Governor added that “for now, zoning is it and those of us from the South are determined that the next president comes from the South.”
