The leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, says that it is the turn of the Igbo to produce the next President of Nigeria.
Adebanjo said this on the Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
According to the 94-year-old elder statesman, it is in the spirit of federal character and equity for the Igbo to produce the next President of the country.
He argued that the South-West produced former President Olusegun Obasanjo who led for eight years and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who has served for almost eight years.
Adebanjo added that the South-South had also produced the President in the person of Goodluck Jonathan who was in office from 2010 to 2015.
The Afenifere leader said all the while, the South-East had been denied the Presidency.
“How can you say rotation in the North and South, and when it comes to the South, it would be South-West and South-South every time? Is the South-East not part of the South? What is the moral we are talking about?
“Is it not the South-West that has served Obasanjo for eight years, Osinbajo for another eight years as Vice President? South-South has served its own. Is the South-East not part of the South? That is the question we should answer,” he said.
Adebanjo said the federal character concept was introduced to accommodate the North.
He, therefore, wondered why concessions could be made for the South-East which had been marginalised.
The Afenifere leader added, “Is it not to accommodate the North that we put the federal character in the constitution, to accommodate less developed areas?
“It doesn’t help the unity of this country if anybody is talking about merit now. It is because of the heterogeneity of the country to keep us together that the question of this rotation comes in, to accommodate ourselves as much as possible. Why do you want to overlook that now? Coming to the South for the 2023 presidential candidate is the equity, moral, and principle, except we are deceiving ourselves.”