The leaders of the North at a recent meeting have insisted that the region will not give up the presidency to the South, insisting that the region will continue to rule Nigeria come 2023. This is coming after the stance by the Southern Governors’ Forum that presidential power must return to the South at the end of Buhari’s eight-year two-term tenure.

Northern Elders reject power shift to the South.

Since the commencement of democratic rule in 1999 in Nigeria power has traditionally moved between the South and North. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (South) handed over to the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (North), who died in office. Dr. Good luck Jonathan (South), who was Yar’Adua’s deputy, took the seat until he yielded it to Muhammadu Buhari (North) after the 2015 general election.

Last week, the Southern governors had risen from their meeting in Enugu to reiterate their demand for the presidency to revert to the South in 2023. The governors also threw their weight behind the collection of VAT by state governments, among other resolutions.

But the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, yesterday Sunday 20th of September 2021 insisted “the North was not for sale and that Northerners are not second-class citizens of Nigeria, as such the region will not accept to play second fiddle when the region has the population to vie for the top political position and win”.

Dr. Baba-Ahmed made this assertion at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria while delivering the keynote address at the inaugural edition of Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organized by the students’ wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG).

While the speaker urged the students to be proud of who they are as Northerners, he equally challenged the students not to accept being treated as second-class citizens in their own country Nigeria.