CSOs Urge APC, PDP To Zone Presidency To South

The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CCSG) on Monday (yesterday) urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone their presidential tickets for the 2023 general elections to the South.

The coalition said a commitment to a rotational presidency would stop the current ethnoreligious division in the country.

The CSOs, numbering about 1, 000 stormed the headquarters of the APC and the PDP, requesting them to ensure that a presidential candidate from the South gets the ticket for the 2023 presidential election.

The protesters, who displayed banners and chanted solidarity songs, barricaded the gate of the two political parties, insisting that the call if adhered to, will save the country from possible instability and crises.

Some of the inscriptions on the banner read: “Please respect power rotation”, “Power rotation is not negotiable”, “We support a united Nigeria”, “One nation great people”, “Southern presidency now”, and “Southern presidency for national unity.”

President of CCSG Bassey Williams who spoke on behalf of the coalition said the call became necessary in order to ensure fairness and unity of the country.

Williams said although political parties have a right to decide where to pick its candidates from, he urged the political parties to jettison all other interests and ambition for the peace, unity and stability of the nation’s democracy.

He said: “We are convinced that power should naturally rotate between the North and Southern region of the country. We also believe that it is by an avowed commitment to this arrangement that we can stop the current ethnoreligious division being experienced in the country.

“Our visit today is to lend our voice in support of the call for power shift to the Southern part of Nigeria. We hereby urge the great men and women of the PDP and APC to heed this patriotic call.

“It is important that we all desire a safe society, peaceful atmosphere and harmonious relationship for development and growth of the country. It is important to note that, since the inception of civil rule in 1999, the country has witnessed zoning arrangements or rotational Presidency between north and south just to keep the polity stable.”

Williams said the coalition would continue to work towards promoting interventions intended to uplift and sustain democracy, good governance and national unity.

The coalition submitted a letter to officials of both political parties.

Part of the letter reads: “This letter is one of those efforts aimed at lobbying for a southern president in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.

“This, in our opinion, will guarantee sustainable peace, national unity and strengthen our democracy.

“The Coalition in our last expanded executive meeting, considered the current political situation in the country and the need for the nation’s unity not to be threatened because of 2023 elections, hence our resolve to get involved and save the country from a possible instability and crises considering the issue of zoning or rotation of the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We wish to appeal to the leadership of the PDP and the APC to consider and concede to the southern part of the country the right to produce the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

“The PDP and APC, no doubt, have a great role to play in ensuring that we remain one united and indivisible nation before and after the 2023 elections. It is on the strength of the above that we march here today in our thousands to submit our position on the imperatives of a presidential candidate of southern Nigeria extraction come 2023 on the platform of the PDP and the APC.

“On power rotation, we stand!”