2023: Southern presidency is most important, I’m okay with Tinubu, Peter Obi’s victory

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has said the most important thing is Southern Presidency as he will be alright with the victory of the presidential candidates of All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Akeredolu stated this on Wednesday night while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

Speaking on the All Progressive Congress, (APC) Muslim-Muslim ticket, he said, “Religion is not the issue now. We have other issues that should be at the front burner in this country. The issue of restructuring, rotational presidency, etc.

“Since 1999, there is an understanding that the presidency will be rotated between the North and South.

“So if today, we have people who want to deploy manipulation to think they can change it, then we should not accept.

“If you listened to my lecture, I said if (Peter) Obi is elected as president, for me that will be alright. If Bola Ahmed Tinubu is elected, that will be alright.

“For me, it must come to the South.”

Earlier in the day, at the one-year remembrance of Prof. Bankole Oke of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Akeredolu insisted that power must return to the south.

The governor stated this while delivering a lecture entitled, ‘Nigeria: The politics of religion in a transitional society.’

He said, “A party that picked somebody from the North as its presidential candidate is not doing so in the country’s interest. (Peter) Obi has the right to contest because he is from the South.

“We are ready to give it whatever it takes to make sure power returns to the South in 2023.”

“There appears to be an understanding that power must rotate between the North and the South. This understanding witnessed the contest of two candidates from the South-West for the Presidency. It was part of the unwritten agreement that the power equation must be balanced to allay the fear of domination harboured by the people of the South.

“There is a conscious attempt not to disrupt the extant agreement. There has been a seamless transition from one civilian regime to another since 1999, the longest in the political history of the country.

“The current political permutations raise strong suspicions on an undeclared motive to thwart the arrangement that has been working for the country. The rotation of the office of the President is between the North and the South since the inception of the Fourth Republic.”