Amid speculations that the All Progressives Congress, APC, National leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu may contest presidency in 2023, he may have slimmer resistance from the Southern part of country.
This is as governors of the Southern part of the country on Saturday vowed resistance presidential candidates of northern origin.
Chairman of Southern governors forum, Rotimi Akeredolu emphatically said governors would oppose any presdential candidate from the northern zone across party lines on 2023 election.
Akeredolu said this while featuring on a Channels Television programme, “Politics Today”
He stressed that presidency cannot go back to the North after President Muhammadu Buhari must has ended his eight years tenure in 2023.
The governor said: “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.
Akeredolu’s insistence was a follow up of the decision of the Southern governors to support presidential candidates of the zone irrespective of party differences.
“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.
He called on the three major political parties to pick their candidates from the South, saying any party that pick its presidential candidate from the North has imperil its chances of winning.
”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 zoning becomes an anathema.
Bola Tinubu and others from the Southern zone may indicate strong interest to contest the presidency.
