From Okwe Obi, Abuja and Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The North 4 North Support Group and the South West Development Frontiers (SWDF), yesterday, called on former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to relax his ambition and support the South East region to take up the mantle of leadership.
The groups’ Coordinator, Mohammed Garba, and National Secretary, Abubakar Sanni, in a statement, said some of their members protested in Adamawa, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, and Kaduna states, to drive home their request.
This is as some northern youths, under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance (CCSGG), yesterday, staged a peaceful protest and rejected the former vice president’s 2023 presidential bid.
The protesters, who stormed Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Way, Kaduna, as early as 7 a.m, carried placards with inscriptions such as “Northern youths reject Atiku for 2023 presidency; Atiku is too old to be president; Atiku abandoned us; 2023 presidency is the turn of the South.”
Addressing newsmen, the convener, Okpanachi Jacob, said presidency should no longer be handled by older candidate because the office required a proactive person with energy.
“At almost 80 years, Atiku does not have enough in the tank to put in the high level of physical and mental efforts required to fix Nigeria.
“We must give all parts of Nigeria a chance to become president or we might slide dangerously into the narratives of enemies of the state who will have a ready recruitment pool from among disgruntled groups.
“Only one region in Nigeria has not been given a chance to take the presidency and it is only fair that in 2023, almost a quarter of a century into our current democratic system, the South East people are reminded that they are just as Nigerians as the rest of us.
“Fairness and equity are the major ingredients for sustainability of any society as history has clearly shown and Nigeria can be no exception to this clear and present rule of nation building; when a society begins to deviate from the principle of fairness and equity, it declines and slides down the rabbit hole of oblivion.
“The presidency cannot also afford to go to an older candidate, considering the enormity of the demands of the job in the 21st century, where there are series of factors playing into a tectonic shift in economic centres of gravity, coupled with the many challenges confronting Nigeria that requires a proactive person with energy to cope with the rigours of office.
“It is the unanimous position of Nigerians, as deduced from the sampling of opinions through our consultations on the subject matter, that the presidency should go to a younger candidate 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 East deserves the presidency in 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.
“No doubt, politics is important as development can only take place in an atmosphere of peace, confidence and sense of belonging in the system.”