The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday focused on the contentious power transition issue.
Threats from the South over zoning and a power transfer from the North were met with resistance from the North’s socio-political organization.
The ACF stated that the North would not be intimidated or blackmailed.
Also yesterday, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide urged Southeast lawmakers against settling for the Vice President position.
It should be a power shift to the Southeast in 2023 or nothing, according to the organization.
Many South African organizations, like the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Middle Belt Forum, have been pressing for a power shift.
Governors from the South have also stated that power should be returned to the region following President Muhammadu Buhari’s term.
Groups protesting at the headquarters of the two major political parties have demanded that the presidential position be zoned to the south.
ACF’s Secretary-General, Murtala Aliyu, stressed yesterday that the law and democratic values must be observed in the election of the next president.
It stated that it was not opposed to Buhari’s successor being chosen from any area of the country.
Some southern leaders have been expressing cautions against the election of another northerner as president, according to the ACF statement.
This is despite the fact that the North has only reigned for ten years since the fourth republic began in 1999.
“Southerners always refuse to face the fact that all the meat, tomatoes, onions, beans, and other foods consumed in the South are produced in the North,” the group bemoaned.
“The North, as they say, contributes nothing to the table and has no right to anything.”
The Forum advised that threats of Nigeria’s disintegration should be avoided because the southern leaders do not have a patent or monopoly on uttering such threats.
“A long-running political riddle that has continued to frustrate all efforts at achieving ‘justice, equity, and fair play’ is this: anything and everything in which the North has superiority, advantage, or strength is, in the opinion of many Southerners, fake, contrived, or speculative, and therefore unacceptable,” the statement reads.
“These Southerners dispute the notion that the North controls 78% of Nigeria’s landmass. They refuse to acknowledge that the North accounts for roughly 55% of Nigeria’s population.
“They refuse to acknowledge that the voting population in the Northwest region of the United States is larger than the Southeast and South-South combined.”
“They will never admit that all of the meat, tomatoes, onions, beans, and other foods consumed in the South are grown in the North.” They make no concessions.
“On the contrary, they claim that the North contributes nothing and is entitled to nothing. Nor to an equitable share of national funds, not to a fair share of public sector employment, and not to public school admissions.
“If the law requires, for example, that election results be based on one man, one vote, they criticize it as a Northern ‘imposition.'”
“They challenge every fact, every principle, even those that formed the foundation of our union, such as our federation, our administrative system, our democracy, and so on.”
“As we get closer to the 2023 elections, it’s no surprise that some Southern politicians are issuing an ultimatum to their Northern counterparts: pick no one from the North as President or we’ll break up the country!”
“However, what exactly are the facts?” The Fourth Democratic Republic of Nigeria is 22 years old. Northerners reigned for only ten years of this period.
“However, some southern leaders are enraged, issuing stern warnings against any Northerner being elected president.”
“It must be stated clearly and without equivocation that the North is not and has never been opposed to any Nigerian from any region of the country being elected President.” However, whatever is done to achieve this must adhere to the law and democratic ideals.
“The days of Northerners being blackmailed and frightened by threats of Nigeria’s re-structuring, secession, breakup, or collapse are long gone.”
“The North does not aim to rule over any region of the country, but it will not submit to serfdom.”
“Those who issue ultimatums should be pitied since they have no idea what they’re doing.” They don’t have a patent or a monopoly on ultimatums as an art or science. “Enough with the extortion.”
PDP primaries are being challenged in court.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled a hearing on May 10 in a case seeking to halt the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary scheduled for May 28.
Cosmas Ndukwe, one of the party’s 17 presidential candidates, filed an ex-parte application for an order of injunction preventing the PDP from holding its scheduled primary.
On Wednesday, an appeal panel chaired by PDP National Chairman Dr. Iyorchia Ayu affirmed Ndukwe’s exclusion by the David-Mark Presidential Screening Committee.
When the case was called yesterday, plaintiff’s lawyer, Paul Erokoro (SAN), told the court that he had received the PDP’s affidavit explaining why the primary poll should not be postponed till the following day.
Erokoro asked the court for an adjournment so that he could read the paper and react to the PDP’s arguments against his client’s claim.
The PDP’s lawyer, Mahmud Magaji (SAN), and the other defendants’ lawyers did not object to the adjournment motion.
Justice Donatus Okorowo set a hearing date on May 10 and requested that the parties submit and exchange their processes ahead of time.
On April 28, Ndukwe, a former Deputy Speaker of the Abia House of Assembly, filed an ex-parte motion for an order of injunction prohibiting the PDP from holding its primary poll.
He claimed that the primary election should be postponed awaiting the outcome of his lawsuit contesting the party’s position on the question of zoning the presidential ticket.
Instead of granting Ndukwe’s request, Justice Okorowo ordered the PDP to come before him on May 5 to show cause why the court should not accept Ndukwe’s motion.
In the FHC/ABJ/CS/508/2022 lawsuit, Ndukwe named the PDP, its national chairman, National Secretary Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
