PAN-AREWAsocio-politcal organisation, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has warned that the region would not succumb to intimidation, blackmail or threat from any section of the country to abandon its quest to retain the presidency in 2023.
Southern Governors’ Forum recently advocated power shift in 2023 after the end of the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in the interest of justice and fairness.
But spokesperson for CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, at a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, said the north would not cave in to the antics and intimidation of proponents of power shift, claiming the region had the numbers to win the 2023 presidential poll.
He also said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would zone its ticket to the north warning that indigenes truncating the ambition of the region would be exposed.
“Since democracy everywhere is a game of numbers, under no circumstance will the north succumb to intimidation, blackmail or threat from any quarter to abandon its collective franchise by not seeking the presidency in 2023 or any time in the future. The northern population which is in clear majority will never accept any presidential candidate who is the product of an undemocratic zoning process from whichever party.”
Suleiman urged the northern public to declare any political party that denies northerners the right to contest the presidency as enemy of the region.
“Any political party that takes any step to block the window for the possible emergence of a northern presidential candidate shall be roundly rejected by the north. No conspiracy in whatever form will stop the north from fielding a candidate for the presidency in the PDP in 2023 irrespective of its recent body language that tends to block a northern candidacy by quickly zoning the national chairmanship position to the north which is unacceptable,” he said.
