Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has said the south would not support any political party that gives its presidential ticket to a northerner.
Tracknews Online reports that there have been several calls for the two major political parties – Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress – to zone their presidential ticket to the south after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
The southern governors forum had in two separate meetings called on political parties to zone it’s ticket to the region for justice and fairness.
However, some politicians, groups and stakeholders have kicked against such calls, insisting that competence should not be sacrificed for fairness.
Speaking to Channels Television on Friday, the Ondo state governor said the south has resolved not to back any political party that picks a northern presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
Akeredolu, who is the chairman of the southern governors forum, after Buhari, who is a northerner, completes his tenure in 2023, the next president should come from the south.
“There are about three political parties that are in the Southern Governors’ Forum, we have APGA, PDP and APC. All of us are unanimous in our position that the next president of this country must come from the south,” Akeredolu said.
“For us, we are unanimous. It is not a political platform. I believe that any party that picks somebody from the north would have to face the whole southern region, southern government because they would not support it.
“But it has to come from the south. We are saying that there must be, what I will call rotational. The justice of it, the fairness in it, that is what we are preaching.
“If my president – President Buhari — has been in office for eight years, so it can’t be from the north, the next president must come from the south.
“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.”
