The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) says it will not support any candidate or particular region but will also not object to the South producing the president in 2023.
National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Emmanuel Yawe stated this while faulting the impression that the north was against other regions producing the president.
However, he emphasised the role of political parties in sponsoring candidates for elections as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution.
He said the socio-cultural organisation does not support any candidate because doing so could cause strife in its midst.
“The ACF has no objection to a southerner becoming the president of Nigeria. In 1999, it was the northerners that promoted and voted for Olusegun Obasanjo as president. What the ACF will not do is to dabble into a matter that has been reserved for political parties to handle by the 1999 Constitution.
“The Constitution clearly states that it is the responsibility of political parties and nobody else to sponsor candidates. We cannot, in the circumstances, support a particular zone or a particular candidate for presidency or any other office. And as we have said before, the ACF welcomes northerners of all political persuasion and identity.
“We cannot start discriminating or identifying with candidates without causing great disharmony in the forum. We are trying to bring harmony and unity to the North and Nigeria. For now, the ACF wants the political parties to perform their constitutional roles in the selection of candidates.
“After that, we shall do the needful by way of advice to both the candidates and the electorate. The impression created that northerners will never support a southerner to be president of Nigeria is erroneous. Chief (Moshood) Abiola, a southerner, was elected on June 12, 1993, with massive electoral support from the North,” Sunday Punch quoted Yawe to have said.
