Presidency must come to South, Akeredolu insists

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has insisted that the South must produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor to respect the country’s power rotation arrangement.

The governor spoke Wednesday while delivering a lecture entitled, ‘Nigeria: The politics of religion in a transitional society’ at the one-year remembrance of Prof. Bankole Oke of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan.

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He urged Nigerians not to scuttle the zoning arrangement, which he said had been an unwritten agreement since the return to civil rule in 1999.

He said: “A party that picked somebody from the North as its presidential candidate is not doing so in the country’s interest. (Peter) Obi has the right to contest because he is from the South.

“We are ready to give it whatever it takes to make sure power returns to the South in 2023.

“The current political permutations raise strong suspicions of an undeclared motive to thwart the arrangement that has been working for the country. The rotation of the office of the President is between the North and the South since the inception of the Fourth Republic.”