Members of the Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), Jonathan’s allies, have begun their campaigning in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, with the claim that the country’s next leader must come from the south.
Early in November, Bola Tinubu’s followers announced their support for him, starting a grassroots mobilisation for the All Progressives Congress, or APC, presidential candidate in the south-east and south-south geopolitical zones of the nation.
In the context of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s announced support for a southern leader to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, the CNPDN mobilised in support of Tinubu. At the time, the group had attempted to persuade Jonathan to enter the campaign for president.
The coalition’s national secretary, Mr. Francis Okereke Wainwei, a native of Bayelsa State, told reporters that the coalition had unanimously decided to support and back Tinubu in the upcoming presidential election in 2023.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Wainwei said that the group’s stance was consistent with that of the Southern Governors’ Forum and the Northern Governors’ Forum of the APC, both of which had called for the election of a southern president in 2023. He also said that having a president from the south would bring the country together and make sure that everyone gets a fair deal.
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He continued, “In the same line, our opinion that the future president of this country should come from the South is driven by the same vision and ideas,” noting that the southerners would feel more a part of the nation.
The group criticised various governors from the southern region of Nigeria for supposedly forsaking the interests of the region, but it was revealed that only Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, is adamant that the southern region will hold the presidency in 2023.
“We are therefore requesting the immediate resignation of the South South governors who have betrayed their people by endorsing a different northern candidate to succeed Buhari after eight years under a president from the North.”
“This is because they have put their own interests above the interests of their entire people, and as a result, the people of the South South Zone can no longer trust them with their shared history.” We’re also asking them to resign because they recently received large sums of money from the 13% derivation fund and spent it on their own interests at the expense of their constituents, according to Wanwein.
The group promised to mobilise citizens from the affected states to force the aforementioned governors to either retire from office or be impeached if they did not comply with its request that state houses of assembly impeach governors who are against the interests of the zone.
