2023: South East Leaders Push For Unopposed Presidential Candidate From Zone

A group of political leaders in the south-east has enjoined all political parties to surrender their 2023 presidential ticket to the region.

Ekohotblog gathered that the demand is part of a resolution reached at a meeting in Abia state on Tuesday.

The leaders said the zone should be allowed to produce the country’s next president for the sake of equity and fairness.

Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, the office of presidency in Nigeria has been rotated between North and south — from the time of Olusegun Obasanjo up until the administration of President Muhamadu Buhari who is from Katsina state.

But with the 2023 election barely two years from now, some Nigerians are agitating for return of  the presidency to the south.

In a statement issued after the meeting attended by 15 south-east leaders, including prominent national assembly members, the group said the south-east will thrown its weight behind any party that zones his presidential ticket to the region.

According to the statement signed by Orji Kalu among others, the region has consistently shown to its “commitment to the unity and development of the country”

The group said the south eastern part is the only zone in the southern region yet to produce a president in the current democratic dispensation.

The statement read “The meeting observed that the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has rotated between Northern and Southern Nigeria and among the various geopolitical zones. Thus, the South West and South South geopolitical zones in the southern part of the country have produced the President of Nigeria.

“Hence as power is expected to rotate to the South in 2023, the meeting noted that the South East is the only zone in the South that is yet to produce a President of Nigeria in the current democratic dispensation.

“Consequently implore all the political parties to cede their presidential tickets in the 2023 general election to the South East in the interest of justice, equity and national unity.

“To make good our demand and reciprocate such good faith, we have decided, as a geopolitical zone with a substantial presence in every part of the country to give a block vote and throw our full weight behind any major political party, particularly the APC (All Progressives Congress) and PDP (Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that zones its presidential ticket to the South East in 2023 general election.”

Amid the argument for power shift from the north to south, some bigwigs in both the APC and the PDP appear to be reluctant to support the zoning formula for the 2023 presidency.