Southern, Middle Belt Forum Rejects Atiku, Describes PDP Convention As ‘Affront On South’

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), Monday, criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for electing Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its presidential standard-bearer in the 2023 general elections.

The forum, an amalgamation of nationalities in the South, had championed a president of Nigeria of South-East extraction in 2023. The forum said Atiku’s emergence was ‘a brazing affront’ to the people of the South.

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The forum’s position was contained in a communique jointly signed by Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw (PANDEF/South-South), Ambassador Okey Emuchay (Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide/South East), Jare Ajayi (Afenifere/South West), Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt Forum), and Ken Robinson, the acting coordinator of SMBLF.

According to the communique, “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has described the emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP as a brazing affront on the people of Southern Nigeria by PDP.

“SMBLF recalls that following the release of the guidelines for the 2023 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), elders and leaders of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt, under the aegis of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum, made unequivocal proclamations on the need for the presidency to be devolved to Southern Nigeria in 2023, in respect of the time-honoured practice of the rotation and zoning of high political offices between the North and the South by political parties as a way of strengthening national unity, peace and harmony.

“SMBLF further recalls that several engagements were held with various stakeholders across the length and breadth of the country on the subject to foster understanding, mutual respect, and oneness. The 17 southern governors also in a declaration after their meeting in Asaba, Delta State, in May 2021, backed the rotation of the presidency to the South in 2023.

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“Sadly, it appears the unity and peace of Nigeria mean little or nothing to a segment of the nation’s political elite.”

It regretted that PDP’s convention of Saturday, 28th May 2022, produced Atiku ‘in utter derision of the established principle of zoning and rotation of power between the north and south’.

The forum said the move was to ‘perpetuate the hegemony of the North given that President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the North and of Fulani origin, will be completing his full tenure of eight years by this time next year’.

The communique went further, “SMBLF, therefore, totally rejects the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and calls on our people of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt as well as all true lovers of peace and unity NOT TO VOTE for him or any other northerner in the 2023 presidential election, in the interest of posterity.

“SMBLF further urges all aspirants for the office of president from Southern Nigeria to shun the conceited attitude of individualism and self-confidence, and work collectively to achieve the shared objectives.”

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It urged politicians of Southern extraction to refuse the position of a running mate to any northern presidential candidate.

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