Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Nigeria’s Northern Leaders of Thought, a coalition of leadership groups and several current and former public official, on January 15, 2022 has rejected as unlawful the position of the Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt Forum that the 2023 candidates for President be zoned to any region in the country.
“The fundamental rights of all political parties to field candidates of their choices, and the right of voters to freely exercise choices over who leads them cannot be compromised. Northerners have equal rights to aspire to all offices but they must raise competence, evidence of personal integrity and commitments to the rule of law above all other considerations.”
In its communiqué, the group which includes the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) championed by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, called on Nigeria’s federal government to ensure that “the fundamental rights of all political parties to field candidates of their choices, and the right of voters to freely exercise choices over who leads them cannot be compromised. Northerners have equal rights to aspire to all offices, but they must raise competence, evidence of personal integrity and commitments to the rule of law above all other considerations.”
“Northerners should ignore provocative statements from groups in the South, who appear to believe in threats and hate campaigns as the hallmark or defining elements for elections. North should vote for the best leader. We the Northern Leaders of Thought also agreed that the current state of insecurity in the North is unprecedented and unacceptable”.
They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to alleviate “the desperate condition of the economic existence of most Northerners, poses additional threats to security and the democratic process.”
