The South-South Presidency 2023 Advocacy Group (SSP23), a frontline advocacy group championing the return of the presidency to the South ahead of the 2023 election has called on Northern Governors and political elite to be wary of taking any decision that will set the nation on the path of political tension and avoidable crisis.
SSP23 said it is expedient for the North to place the overall unity, cohesion and peace of the country above sectional and regional interests.
The group was reacting to the position taken by the Northern States Governors’ Forum on Monday which opposed the call by its Southern counterpart that the Presidency should move to the South in 2023.
The northern governors, who stated this at their meeting in Kaduna, said the call by the Southern Governors’ Forum was against the constitution of the country.
But the SSP23, in a swift reaction made by the Chairman, Chief Dekivie Bovie Ikiogha warned that the northern governors’ position was against the unity of the country, stressing that it was unbecoming for the governors to take such an unfortunate position despite well-known unwritten but working rotational arrangement between the South and the North and the unwavering support the South has shown the current President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“It is unfortunate that anyone would imagine that power should not rotate after eight years of a northern presidency especially given the agitations in the South. It is only those who are seeking the destruction of the union that would be stocking such fire. It is simply shocking to say the least. Any Northerner that truly loves Nigeria and wishes for the union to continue will never endorse such a position.
“It will amount to great injustice and inequity if such a position were allowed to fester on the larger population. The consequences would surely be indescribable”.
The group further urged the forum to review its position as it regrettably sends a wrong signal that the issue of forging unity in the country is only on their lips and not in their hearts.
