Coalition aligns with northern govs, opposes power shift in 2023

Some actors in civil society under the umbrella of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), on Monday aligned with northern governors in opposition to zoning of the President to the south after the second tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. The coalition, like the northern governors, argued that zoning   is unconstitutional, protesting that it is an attempt to intimidate the north from contesting in the 2023 presidential race.

The public affairs handler of the Coalition of Northern Groups, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, declared that the coalition is in alliance  with the Northern Governors’ Forum in opposition to rotation of the president to the south in 2023. The coalition ordered political parties to abandon zoning their presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria.

Abdul-Azeez Suleiman threatened that the north will not comply with any zoning arrangement for elective positions in the 2023 general elections.

Abdul-Azeez Suleiman had declared: “We find the renewed desperation by the south to threaten northern people’s right to franchise a deliberate attempt to bastardise democracy, cause greater instability in the guise of contentious undemocratic power shift arrangement and therefore unacceptable.

“The CNG after due consultation with stakeholders, leaders and elders has categorically resolved to firmly and solidly align completely with the position taken by the Northern Elders Forum as expressed by Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and that of the Northern Governors’ Forum that zoning of elective positions is unconstitutional, undemocratic and must be jettisoned.”

The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, at the end of an emergency meeting of the governors with traditional rulers at the Government House, Kaduna, Kaduna State on September 27, said that the northern governors collectively rejected zoning of the president to the south in 2023, noting that it is against the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended, and therefore, unconstitutional.