The president of the country cannot be chosen by the North, according to Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the head of the Yoruba sociocultural organisation Afenifere.
At the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on Victoria Island in Lagos, Adebanjo delivered a speech on Monday at a public lecture with the title “Nationalism and nation-building in Nigerian history.”
“It was suggested that the South-East must travel to the North to bargain because politics is a game of numbers,” he remarked.
My argument is that the East should not beg for a favor; it is their right, as I said when I spoke to the public yesterday.
But every time I hear that people should go because the North has a population, I wonder: what kind of population is that?
I can’t buy that from you.
They urge us to cooperate, but regrettably now that they have a president in office, they claim that only people from the North can become president. As a result, some southerners have been indoctrinated into believing that they can accomplish nothing until they submit to the North. I don’t believe it.
“What authority does the North have to choose our president? We were not brought together via peace or agreement; rather, they pushed us together and we consented, therefore for us to live in peace going forward, there must be mutually acceptable conditions. Not because he is Igbo, but rather because it is in Nigeria, the East has the right. Afenifere’s guiding principles are based on an intellectual foundation and encompass fairness, inclusivity, and lack of bias.
