The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has expressed disappointment over the recent statements made by Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu on the issue of zoning of the 2023 presidency, saying the governor has no right to threaten anybody.
Leader of the Northern Youth Coalition, Yerima Shetimma in an interview on Sunday said nobody can force anybody to implement zoning as Akeredolu has been threatening in his recent interviews.
Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum had said any political party that fields a northern candidate for presidency in 2023 risks losing the support of southerners.
He argued that when the President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, completes his second term in 2023, the next president should come from the South.
According to him , “There are about three political parties that are in the Southern Governors’ Forum, we have the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress. All of us are unanimous in our position that the next president of this country must come from the South.
“For us, we are unanimous. It (the forum) is not a political platform. I believe that any party that picks somebody from the North would have to face the whole southern region because they will not support it”.
“It has to come from the South. We are saying that there must be what I will call rotation. The justice of it and the fairness in it are what we are preaching. If my president – President Buhari — has been in office for eight years, it can’t be from the North. The next president must come from the South.”
However, kicking against Akeredolu’s position, Shetimma said “Nobody can force anybody to implement zoning. It is unfortunate that you have a lawyer, who is supposed to be a learned person, who is a governor. The language he is using is very disappointing”.
“I am talking about the governor of Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu. He cannot tell anybody that it is a must that they zone. We are practicing democracy and nobody can impose his wish on others”.
