Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere has said it was not desperate for the South-West geopolitical zone to produce the president in 2023.
The group stated this in apparent reaction to calls by a group, Next Level Consolidation Forum (NLCF) that the geopolitical zone must produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.
National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Jare Ajayi, said, “First of all, the presidency in 2023 must shift to the Southern part of the country. We insist on that. For whether it should be South East, South South or South West, we want the best person, who will do the job, correct all the anomalies that the country is going through, and ensure that Nigeria move forward to where other countries are in the 21st Century and beyond.
“That is the kind of candidate that we are looking forward to. To be specific, when we get close to that time, we will decide. As far as we are concerned in Afenifere, whoever that emerges as president in 2023, will have problem in running the country if Nigeria is not restructured. There must be serious tinkering with the present structure in such a way that it will be pro-people, rather than how it is now.
“There must be restructuring before 2023. The question of where the president will come from is secondary. But the president must come from the Southern part of this country. What we are running on the country today is more or less a unitary government, which concentrates too much power at the centre. So, we are calling for decentralization and genuine commitment to the rule of law and federalism. We are insisting that these must take place before the 2023 elections.”
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