2023 presidency; North Central group insists its their Turn.
* Says it is for equity, fairness and justice.
A group under the aegis of North Central Coalition for Leadership NCCL has insisted that the 2023 presidency belong to the zone for the sake of equity, fairness and justice.
The Director General of the Association, Williams Charles Oluwatoyin stated this at a meeting held in Ilorin, Kwara state capital on Thursday.
He regretted at a situation where the North Central zone which had been the political stabiliser between the North and South has never tasted power since the democratic experiments in Nigeria.
The DG lamented that the zone has become the only zone that has not produced either the president nor vice president since Nigeria became an independent state.
He added that the North Central zone with highly intelligent and hardworking citizens has not been given opportunity to rule the country under a democratic setting despite the quantum contributions of her citizens under the military regimes.
He stressed that it would be impossible to stop an idea which it’s time has come , just as the time for the North Central zone to produce the president has come ,urged other zones to rise up in support of the North Central zone to produce the next president.
Oluwatoyin decried the attitude of the political elites who have perpetually ascribed the position of party chairmanship to the zone, hinting that the group will mobilise every right thinking citizen of the zone to kick against planned allocation of chairmanship position of the major political parties to the zone.
The DG who chronicled the leadership marginalisation of the zone since independence, opined that in the first Republic between 1960-1966, “The nation produced Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Head of state from South East and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, prime minister from North East.
“The Second Republic ,1979 – 1983 produced President Shehu Shagari and Vice President Alex Ekwueme NorthWest and South East, while the Abortive Third Republic was won by M.K.O Abiola South West and Babagana Kingibe from North East.
“After several military regimes, the democratic process once again kicked off in May 1999 which had Olusegun Obasanjo as president from South West while his vice Alhaji Atiku Abubakar hailed from North East.
“The North West again produce Musa Yaradua with his vice Goodluck Jonathan from South South and after the death of YarAdua, Jonathan stepped in to complete the tenure and contested and won making him to rule for six years with his vice Arch Namadi Sambo from the North West.
” The North West again has produced the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice Professor Yemi Osinbajo from the South west.
“The Northwest , however has produced three presidents and a total of 11 years so far in office, While North East had prime minister, vice president, North West, South South and SouthWest had produced vice presidents leaving the North Central as an orphan in the political equation of the country.
While calling on the leaders of thoughts from the zone to form a common front devoid of party, tribal and religious affiliations to wrestle power to the zone, vowed to use available resources at the group’s disposal to ensure the zone produce the next president of the country.
