2023: Obasanjo Backs Power Shift To South

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared his support for power shift from the North to South and admonished the nation’s electorate to look beyond ethnicity, religion or other emotional attachments while casting their votes to elect public office holders in 2023 general election.

Obasanjo specifically said elections in 2023 must mark a turning point if Nigeria as a country must get things right in her economy and politics.

Obasanjo gave the charge yesterday when he addressed members of the Tiv apex socio-cultural group of Benue State, Mzough U Tiv (MUT) who paid him an “appreciation and friendship” visit at his private residence located within the precinct of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

He enjoined all the citizens to see the country as a project for all and strive towards saving her soul and restore it to what God has created it to be.

Earlier in his speech, leader of the team and president general of the Tiv delegation, Chief Iorbee Ihagh had told Obasanjo that the group was in Abeokuta on a friendship visit and “to interface with you as our former Head of State: a political pillar, a nationalist and elder statesman. Basically, we are here to appreciate your overwhelming love, passion and concern you have demonstrated over the Tiv people.”

Ihagh, however, listed three principal areas which he said they would want Obasanjo to seriously consider for the growth of Nigeria and the Tivland, among which was the issue of Fulani herders’ attack on Tiv land and on the Nigerian power sharing formula.

“With regards to the current power equation in the country, we in the Mzough u Tiv in conjunction with the Middle Belt Forum had unanimously resolved for a power shift from the North to the South for fairness, justice and a true federalism.

“We want to call on your Excellency and other well -meaning Nigerians to strictly adhere to the principle of rotation and distributive justice. If this is enforced, the middle Belt would also be assured of producing the next president come year 2031,” he said.

Obasanjo, who maintained that he was in support of change of the leadership of the country, particularly from the North to the South, however, charged that people of the Middle Belt region should continue to advocate for rotational presidency in the country.

Obasanjo said he was in support of the change of the leadership of the country from the North to the South, while the Middle-Belt region should continue to advocate for rotational presidency for the country.

“If Nigeria is ready to get it right, the 2023 election should be a turning point. We should not go for emotion that will destroy us,” he added.

The former president, who noted that the oil and gas sector can no longer sustain the growing Nigerian population any more, charged that only farming and agribusiness remain the alternative that will feed the nation.

“Only farming and agribusiness could tackle the nation’s growing population. Farming and agribusiness are what will feed the nation,” Obasanjo said.

He called on the Tiv people to focus on farming and agribusiness, stressing that he had put the experience of having his farm burnt in Benue State behind him, and hinted about having an industry established in the state next year.