An advocacy group, the South-North Progressive Forum (SNPF), has urged all political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which is yet to zone its candidacy, to consider the South in 2027, for the sake of national stability.
It said zoning of party presidential tickets to the Southern part of Nigeria for the 2027 election will correct a historic power imbalance and foster national unity.
The chairman of the SNPF, Comrade Festus Onyekwulisi, said beyond a few political elite agreeing to the zoning of 2027 presidency to the South, there must be a conscious mobilisation to ensure that millions of citizens across southern states as well as the 19 northern states actively buy into this idea.
“We are quietly leading the building of a national consensus that would impact the voting process in 2027,” Onyekwulisi stated.
The SNPF also called on the National Assembly to enact laws formalising power rotation for elective positions.
“As the 2027 elections draw nearer, the South-North Progressive Forum is positioning itself as a potent, issue-based movement determined to ensure that the next election is fought on the tenets of equity and justice, potentially reshaping the nation’s political landscape,” the SPNF leader stated.
Making a case of a president of southern extraction in 2027, Onyekwulisi said Nigeria’s democratic history since 1957, revealed a stark disparity wherein the North has held the presidency for a cumulative 24 years, compared to the South’s 18 years.
He argued that allowing the South another four-year term in 2027 is not a matter of political favour but a necessary step to reinforce the principles of fairness, federal character, and national cohesion.
“This is not about mere politics, it is about national integration, equity, justice, and fairness, it is about ensuring national cohesion so that we have peace in this nation; our vision is a Nigeria where no group dominates, but where every section has a genuine sense of belonging,” he stated.
Beyond mere advocacy, the SNPF is backing its words with a formidable grassroots mobilization strategy and the SPNF has unveiled an ambitious plan to galvanise a minimum of 10 million votes to ensure the emergence of a Southern president in 2027.
Onyekwulisi detailed a sophisticated “mobilization framework” that has already seen the appointment of coordinators in over 30,000 of Nigeria’s 58,300 identified communities, towns and villages.
To combat voter apathy and the menace of electoral malpractices, Onyekwulisi said the group is running simultaneous sensitization programs, warning that politicians who are planning to weaponize insecurity, hunger, or religious and ethnic sentiments will be disappointed in 2027.
“Those antics have expired, the 2027 election is not going to be politics as usual; any politician who wants to coerce Nigerians will fail woefully and Nigerians will vote their conscience,” he asserted.
Onyekwulisi said a unique feature of the SNPF’s strategy is its introduction of a new political philosophy termed “Rightful Defection’ and the concept provides a shield for its non-partisan members to freely support a Southern candidate of their choice, based on competence and equity, irrespective of their official party affiliations.
