Southern Governors demand next President must be a southerner

The Southern Governors Forum (SGF) has insisted that the winner of the 2023 presidential election must be a candidate from the southern region.

This was one of the resolutions reached at the meeting of the 17 state governors in Lagos State on Monday, July 5, 2021.

There's an unwritten agreement on the rotation of the presidency between the north and the south, with the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, set to end his second term in 2023.

"The Forum reiterates its commitment to the politics of equity, fairness and unanimously agrees that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between Southern and Northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the Southern Region," the governors said on Monday.

Nothing appears concrete as to where the two major political parties will zone their tickets less than two years to the next elections.

Even if the parties zone the tickets to the south, there are internal conflicts about which geopolitical zone deserves to have it.

President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999 - 2007) from the south west, and President Goodluck Jonathan (2010 - 2015) from the south south have both occupied the nation's highest political office.

There have been demands for the slot to go to the south east which has never had a member lead the nation in a democratic government before.

Yet, there's no consensus in the region for this to happen. One of the most prominent aspirants for the 2023 presidential election is former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, from the south west.