Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos
A socio-political group, the Middle Belt Forum, yesterday warned that for the country to remain one, the presidency must go South.
The group took a swipe at the Northern Governors Forum that is opposed to power shift to the South saying they should hide their faces in shame.
Speaking on ARISE News Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY, President of the Forum, Mr. Bitrus Pogu, said with secessionist tendencies on the rise in the country, the wise decision would be to allow the presidency to go South.
“The Southern governors made the statement believing that there was some body language here up north suggesting that this gentleman’s agreement, which is not constitutional, of course, was not going to be kept by people in the North.
“So, they met and said the body language of so many Northerners indicated that something is fishy. And for the north now to come and respond the way they did the governors and traditional rulers, to me, is unfortunate because if we want Nigeria to remain one at a time now that successionist tendencies are growing more and more than ever before, the better thing to do is to do the right thing and let the presidency go down south”, he said.
The forum’s president said: “If we want this country to remain one after 2023, the right thing to do is give this to the south.”
He added that the Middle Belt be also considered in the equation of zoning but for now they are siding with the south.
“For now, it should go to the south but we should also be considered in the equation. We are saying, let’s allow the presidency to move to south and if it would not move, let it come in the middle belt.”
“The forum is partnering with groups in the South because we realise that our northern brothers, you know they are two different words, our northern brothers who we have stayed together have continued to use for their own purposes.
“But when it comes to share in the cake, we are not part of it. So, we have been partners, we forged this partnership recently and we believe that yes, we have so many things in common with the southern partners,” he said.
He said partnership with the South at this time would be more beneficial.
“Look, enough is enough. You can’t continue to remain in the same position all the time you see a better position you move to that better position and because of that, we believe, a better position now is partnering with people in the South. “Now, we can forge a better Nigeria, where every Nigeria would have equal status as Nigerians, not so Nigeria dictating to others. I can categorically say without fear, without any compromise that where we are now is worse than ever before. we are more divided than ever before, the economy is bad, insecurity you don’t have to mention it”, he said.
Pogu stated that “even the day before yesterday, a former senator was kidnapped and I thank God, I learnt he is now free. So, these things have ruined this country, though, we can see physical structures coming up because of individual efforts, government need to come up, moving in the right direction for Nigeria to be what it’s supposed to be.
“So, the problem of this country is bad leadership, leadership that is sectional and that’s one of the reasons why we say power of the northerners who decided on Monday that power must not go to the south, should cover their faces his shame”.
“If what we have now, as northern leadership is what they want to retain for Nigeria, then sorry for this country. It means we cannot move forward. We need change. We need to move forward, whether it is APC or PDP. We need to move forward. What has the presidency in the north done to move Nigeria forward”, he queried.
On the population strength the north claims, he said the Middle Belt remained majority of the northern votes and called for future elections be transmitted electronically to curb voter fraud.
“Nigeria, need a transparent method of electoral process so that all these middlemen in our electoral process called returning officers who changed 10 into 1000 or 10 into 10,000 will now cease to exist as results. But I think with technology, even that one would be cut short, and we will have a transparent election, and then we will transmit the results electronically.
“Nobody will change the results at the polling station, it will go to the server, everybody is watching and there and then we’ll have the result as it comes, then the true population will emerge,” he maintained.
