As race for the 2023 Presidency begins in earnest, some prominent Nigerians have canvassed power shift to the South.
Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, on his part said: “Nigeria’s unity demands that North and South should rotate the office of president and after President Buhari serves his eight years, presidency should return to the South and specifically go to the South-East zone in 2023.
According to him, “Some people argue that they want people who are intelligent, who have integrity and worthy personality, I dare say that such people are not scarce in Nigeria, whether in North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-West, South-South and South-East.
“So also the Presidency should not remain in the North-West, it should also go to North-Central and North-East, similarly in the South, it should not be South-West, South-South and South-East
“Therefore, anybody who believes in the unity of this country knows its sustenance depends on quality leadership and ability of all sections of the country to aspire to any position in the country.”
South-East deserves it – Nkanga, Luke
PANDEF Chairman, Nkanga said: “Our position is that if there is arrangement of North and South, we should keep to it. If it is coming to the South, it should be South-East zone. But above all, we are calling for restructuring.
“If there is restructur-ing, things will go well in this country, look at what they did to us in Ghana, if the country has been restructured, things will not be going this way, they will not be taking us for granted.
”At least, let us restruc-ture this country to make things work. President Buhari should sign the Electoral Bill so that we can hold proper election in this country.
”In 2019, he won power, not election. “Other than restructur-ing the country, we will continue to be a laughing stock and a beggar nation. I am not really much concerned about where presidency goes, we are not so much concerned but let there be restructuring.”
Second vice chairman, Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers, Pere of Akugbene-Mein King-dom, Delta State, HRM Luke, Kalanama VIII, stated in his contribution: “In my own view which is also an advisory one, for the sake of honesty, sincerity and stability, power should move to the South in 2023.
“When it gets to the South, the South-East, which is also part of the country, should have a bite of the presidency.
“After South-East does its two tenures, the ideal thing, of course, is that power should go back to the North. Again, when power gets to the North, the North-East has never produced any president in the history of this country. Therefore, it should be given same opportunity.
“So for the sake of stability and equity, power should be rotated to Southern Nigeria in 2023 and if they want to micro-zone, they should give opportunity to the South-East. Our role as traditional rulers is to advise the government and I have played my advisory role in the interest of Nigeria.”
