The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has criticised the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) decision to run former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for president.
The forum had previously demanded that all presidential candidates be zoned to the south.
The SMBLF also warned that presenting northern candidates in the next general election would have “disastrous consequences.”
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PDP delegates, on the other hand, elected Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate on Saturday.
The SMBLF said the choice of a northern candidate was a “brazen affront” to the south in a statement signed by the forum’s leaders on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, it appears that Nigeria’s unity and peace are meaningless to a segment of the country’s political elite. This was demonstrated at the PDP special convention on Saturday, May 28, 2022, where certain candidates from the north were pressured, coerced, and even intimidated into stepping down for former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who eventually emerged as the party’s flagbearer, in blatant disregard for the established principle of zoning and power rotation between the north and south,” according to the statement.
“Unquestionably, the sole motivation is to maintain northern hegemony, given that President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north and of Fulani ancestry, will have completed his full eight-year term by this time next year.”
In the interest of posterity, the SMBLF completely rejects Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and urges all true lovers of peace and unity in Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt not to vote for him or any other Northerner in the 2023 presidential election.
“SMBLF also urges all aspirants for the office of President from southern Nigeria to reject conceited individualism and self-confidence in favour of working together to achieve shared goals.”
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“Once again, the SMBLF urges all politicians of southern ancestry to refuse to serve as a running mate to any northern presidential candidate, as this will be seen as akin to enslaving their people to political slavery.”
Bassey Ewa-Henshaw of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) south-south, Okey Emuchay of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, south-east, Jare Ajayi Afenifere, south-west, Isuwa Dogo of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), and Ken Robinson, acting coordinator SMBLF, are among the signatories to the statement.
