Following a last-minute endorsement by President Muhammadu Buhari and governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party is set to elect a southern presidential aspirant at its primary scheduled for Tuesday.
The eleven northern governors convened an emergency meeting in Abuja just before Buhari hosted the party’s 23 presidential aspirants yesterday and resolved that the president ought to be succeeded by a southerner in the interest of national unity.
They passed their suggestion to the president who gave it his backing immediately.
He said the presidential aspirants should proceed for consultations and come up with a “formidable candidate”.
Chairman of the Southern States Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, hailed Buhari and the northern governors for “this heart-warming decision from our colleagues, great patriots and reliable partners in the collaborative efforts geared towards the attainment of nationhood for our dear country.”
The APC northern governors, in a communiqué at the end of their Abuja meeting yesterday, asked President Buhari to restrict his search within the party for a successor to the southern states.
They said a power shift to the South would be in the interest of building a stronger, more united, and more progressive country.
They advised all Northern presidential aspirants to withdraw in the national interest and allow only the aspirants from the south to proceed to the primaries.
