A northern youth group under the aegis of the Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance (CCSGG), has called on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other northern candidates to jettison their 2023 presidential ambition for a candidate from the southern part of the country.
The group which staged a peaceful protest march in Kaduna on Monday, said it was backing calls by many Nigerians for the presidency to be zoned to the South in the interest of justice and equity.
While addressing newsmen at the end of the protest march, the National Coordinator of the Coalition, Jacob Okpanachi, said Nigeria, as presently constituted, was “confronted by myriads of challenges that require a young and proactive person with the energy to cope with the rigours of the office of the President.”
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“We are using this peaceful protest march to tell former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to drop his presidential ambition on account of his old age,” Okpanachi said.
“The kind of President Nigeria needs now is a young, vibrant and proactive person who has the energy to tackle the myriads of problems Nigeria is facing today.
“The presidency should go to younger candidates in tune with the realities within which we exist in today’s world and capable of making decisions at the pace required there from.
“The south deserves the Presidency of Nigeria come 2023 and we must narrow down our focus to searching for the best candidate from the region rather than allowing the public discourse space to be crowded by a cacophony of distractions that will end up robbing us of the very best of us.”
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He further urged the 2019 PDP presidential candidate to project national interest outside of his desire to become the President.
“We have promoted the candidature of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for years. But we humbly call on the former Vice President to do us a good turn in return for the many good turns we have done for him.
“We have sacrificed a lot pushing for democracy for the presidency of Atiku Abubakar all these years, even though we have been abandoned in a way by him after each election cycle.
“At almost 80, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar does not have enough in the tank to put in the high level of physical and mental efforts required to fix Nigeria.
“We equally call on other aspirants who are old to leave the field allowing for younger and vibrant candidates to emerge and take the reins of power,” he added.