The Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has assured the country’s southern region that, in the interests of fairness, justice, and equity, it will support a President of Southern extraction to succeed Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 general election.
According to Pogu, the forum’s decision to go South in the search for the next President has already been communicated to Rotimi Akeredolu, the chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum and the governor of Ondo State.
“We visited the governor of Ondo state, who is the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, to tell him that we started a movement, and that movement started at Awka where we decided to do two things: to declare our support for the emergence of Southern government so that the rotation principles established in this country be adhered to, and we believe that would address many of our problems,” he explained.
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We also decided at the Akwa meeting to launch a program to educate the country’s youth, which we called the Forty Million Ballot Movement.
“The youths, who make up the majority of our voting population, will play a critical role in this new development that will transform Nigeria.”
“We told Mr. Governor that we met, that is, the socio-cultural groups comprising Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Pan Niger Delta Forum, Afenifere, and the Middle Belt Forum on the 13th of January, 2022, in Abuja, and that we also endorsed that same position that we would like to see the emergence of a president of southern extraction by 2023.”
Further, he stated that if any political party decides to appoint a governor of northern origin, we will campaign against them, and the political parties should be aware of our determination.
We went to express our solidarity and to inform him of our position, and to request that he, as President or Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, convey to his colleagues that we support the election of a Southerner as President.”
Dr. Pogu, however, stated that the South is home to a legion of competent people, one of whom can lead Nigeria in the right direction beginning in 2023, saying, “we know we have so many competent people in the South who can transform Nigeria, who can stop all these insurgencies, who can transform the economic misdeeds which we are now suffering from.”
We spend up to 85 percent of our earnings just to service debts, which is unacceptably high.
He slammed those advocating for another Northerner to succeed President Buhari, stating that the group will always support what is right and just for the country.
“Perhaps they aren’t used to being challenged, which is why they now see statements like those made by the governor of Ondo state and Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum as a threat,” he continued.
As far as I’m concerned, that is a legitimate demand, and the south deserves to make such a legitimate demand, and there are so many people in the North who feel this thing has to move to the South, and if saying it has to move is also a threat, that is up to them.
“We are genuine Nigerians.” We are the people who keep Nigeria together, who keep the South and the North together, and we want things to work.
That is what will be beneficial to us. We have a large number of people in IDP camps who have been displaced from their ancestral homes, and we believe that when Nigeria works well for all Nigerians, we benefit.
We will not claim that we must have our own way. We previously stated that if the south is not prepared, we will go for it,” he added.
