Governor of Ondo State and chairman of Southern Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, has insisted that only candidates from the South are good enough to become Nigeria’s president in 2023.

In an interview Wednesday night on Channels TV, Mr Akeredolu okayed the ambitions of Labour Party’s Peter Obi and APC’s Bola Tinubu. 

He however carpeted the run of the main opposition party’s candidate, PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.

“If you listen to my lecture, I said if Obi is elected, that would be alright; if Bola Tinubu is elected, that would be alright. For me, it must come to the South,” Mr Akeredolu said.

Mr Akeredolu has been consistent with his push for a president of southern extraction to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner who will complete his eight-year reign in May 2023.

Southern Governors’ Forum had last year put out a statement to demand for the zoning of the presidency to the South.

An unwritten rule among the political class has ensured that Nigeria’s presidency rotated between the North and South since the advent of the 4th Republic. 

“Since 1999, there is an understanding that we move from north to south, rotate the presidency, and that if today, we have people who want to deploy what I will call manipulation of our people on religious basis to think you can change it, then we should not accept it,” Mr Akeredolu said.

Against the agitation of southern governors, Mr Abubakar, a northerner from Adamawa, emerged the presidential candidate of the major opposition party.