Northern Elders Forum has accused southern governors of demanding, in a wrong way, the mandate to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023.

NEF’s spokesman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said the governors had to do more than making a pronouncement. On Monday, the governors issued a communiqué insisting that the next president must come from the southern region.

Speaking on Channels TV on Wednesday, Mr Baba-Ahmed said though the call for power shift to the South was not wrong, the governors’ approach was defective.

“You read in between the lines of their well-crafted communique that says that they want basically a southern presidency. It is not wrong. That means the North needs to yield the presidency to the southern part of the country. There is nothing wrong with that,” Mr Baba-Ahmed said.

He, however, noted, “The problem is the manner it is being pursued this time by people who were elected on the basis of the constitution, who understand that politics is about getting up and convincing people rather than just sitting down and say ‘we want this, we want that.’ That’s wrong.

“Two, they must know that the manner they are doing this, not what they are looking for, but the manner in which they are doing it is likely to cause more problem for them than solve the problems.”

He further said southern governors would have to convince northerners about their position and other Nigerians while ensuring that political parties field southern candidates in the 2023 presidential election.

Explaining his point further, Mr Baba-Ahmed said, “But the problem is to get the North to say, ‘Ok, show us why it is better. Show us why a southern presidency is the best for the North and the rest of Nigeria.’ This is a democratic country. Citizens vote. Nigerians, irrespective of where they are, will vote. Political parties have to do the hard work.”