From AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna and Robert Egbe
A Coalition of northern youths, the Arewa Youths Assembly (AYA), on Wednesday said it would be wicked and grossly unfair for the North to retain power beyond 2023.
Also on Wednesday, the Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba (Grand Council of Yoruba Youths) said it would peacefully oppose the Northern region from retaining the Presidency in 2023.
AYA said it would do all that is politically required to ensure the emergence of a Southern candidate for the 2023 presidency.
At a media briefing in Kaduna, its leader Mohammed Salihu Danlami said: “It is grossly unfair and malicious for the north to retain power beyond 2023.”
AYA’s position follows a comment by a leader of the Northern Elders Forum Prof Ago Abdullahi that the North can retain power for 100 years.
Danlam: “The North has occupied the leading position of the country since independence, more than any other region.
“It is time for South-south youths to produce the next President in 2023 to complete their eight years of leadership.
“Arewa Youth Assembly has noticed a series of misleading comments being orchestrated by some political buccaneers that North should retain the national leadership come 2023.
“It is grossly unfair, malicious and wicked for all those fuelling or promoting this project. We say no! We say no!! We say no!!!
“Our great nation has not fulfilled its potential and our realities are far from our ideals. It is time for a new generation to build a modern Nigeria.”
The group said the next president who should be “a very energetic youth” from the South-south.
Also on Wednesday, the Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba said it had watched with “keen interest” the trend of events as regards 2023 election.
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It said it believed some northern leaders were positioning the region to retain the seat, contrary an unspoken agreement for rotation of the office.
The group’s Aare Apapo (President General), Comrade Awa Bamiji, argued that the Presidency is the turn of the Yoruba.
He urged the supporters of another northern candidature to withdraw their claims in the interest of national unity.
Bamiji, who stated this in a statement, referenced a video interview by “our dear friend, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, which has gone viral on social media.”
He said Yerima “dreamt about the Northern Region retaining Presidency in 2023, based on his arithmetic calculations of the number of years the Northern and the Southern parts of the country would have stayed in power by 2023 since 1999”.
“We strongly believe that his unwarranted voice came as a follow – up to the earlier advocacy by Prof Ango Abdullahi, Chairman, Northern Elders Forum, that his group would support any party that puts forward a Candidate of Northern extraction in 2023.
“Another Northern Elder, Junaid Muhammed, said the North had the number and therefore in the next 100 years, they were supposed to be in control of power in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, the North should concede the Presidency to other regions because it has enjoyed a longer shot at the office.
Bamji said: “If we are to count the number of years the North and South stayed in power, it is still obvious that North has shortchanged the South since 1960 till date.
“This imbalance, especially during the military eras, is what this democracy is trying to correct by recognising a gentleman agreement of rotational presidency of eight years each for the North and South.”
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