A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro, has insisted that Nigeria’s presidency should remain in the southern region in 2027, in line with the country’s informal North-South power rotation arrangement.
Senator Moro who was a guest on Channels Television’s “Sunday Politics” programme, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by our Correspondent in Lagos, cautioned political parties against fielding northern candidates in the upcoming election, warning that such a move could backfire.
The Benue South Senatorial District lawmaker argued that PDP’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election was partly due to the party’s decision to select a northern candidate to succeed another northerner, a move he said voters rejected.
“In 2023, the PDP to unseat the government of APC, decided to put its best foot forward and at that time, picked Atiku Abubakar against the code of an unwritten agreement of North-South presidency. It backfired.
“The majority of Nigerians at that time chose a southern candidate to fulfil the righteousness of the unwritten convention of the North-South rotation. That presidency will be four years by 2027.”
Moro, who did not endorse any candidate for the next round of general elections, however pointed out that the constitution allowed a president to serve for two terms of four years each.
“Again, it is going to present some little somersaults if, against the backdrop of what happened in 2023, you begin to tinker with the idea of getting power back to the north.
“The reasonable thing to do is: the south should produce the next president to complete eight years of the south, and automatically, even though unwritten, Nigerians will be looking up to the north to produce the next president in 2031.”
Speaking on Alhaji Atiku Abubakars departure from the party, Moro wishes them well, insisting he is not leaving the party.
He accused Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the party and his running mate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who had earlier dumped the party of contributing to internal conflicts that weakened the party after the last general election. He assured that the party would rebuild and bounce back as a strong and virile opposition.
