Nigeria: Picking a Southerner As Presidential Candidate is Delightful, Afenifere

The pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Wednesday said the choice of a Southerner as the presidential candidate by the All Progressives Congress (APC) is delightful.

The National Publicity Secretary of the group, Comrade Jare Ajayi, in a statement issued in Ibadan, said it is a known fact that the Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum, of which Afenifere is a key member has been in the forefront of those advocating that power must shift to the Southern part of Nigeria come 2023. 

He said for power to move to the South there must be Southern candidate or candidates, noting that that was why the Forum was strident in its calls on the political parties to field Southern candidates in the forthcoming Presidential election. 

He maintained that by electing Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, to fly its flag, the APC has met the minimum condition of fielding a Southern candidate.

He however added that a return to true federalism through the restructuring of the country has been an article of faith for the group for a long time. 

According to him, “It is our hope, indeed our demand, that the next President must get the country restructured immediately on assumption of office if the present administration under retired General Muhammadu Buhari failed to do so before leaving office.

“Not only that, the next administration owes us the duty of ensuring that the country is not only safe for everybody, the operational system must be such that no section or group would be in a position to dominate the other.

In summing up, the emergence of a person of Southern extraction is highly welcomed. It is our hope that this will translate into power shifting to the South come 2023.”

Ajayi nevertheless said what he described as suffocating insecurity situation in the country must be tamed immediately through allowing for the establishment of state police as well as putting a stop to the kid glove manner with which bandits and terrorists are being treated by the Federal Government.

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

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