2023: Group decries plot to exclude North Central from Presidential race, fingers PDP, APC, others »

The North Central Renaissance Movement (NCRM) has condemned in the strongest term the apparent moves by the political parties to exclude the North Central Geopolitical Zone from the starting line-up for the 2023 Presidential race.

In a press statement signed by the group’s chairman Dr. Nghargbu K’tso noted that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has led the pack by ensuring the Chairmanship of the Party was zoned to the North Central and then going ahead to produce as her National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, one of the region’s highly respected elders who himself was eminently qualified to run for President in 2023.

The Party by this action has zoned out the North Central from her 2023 presidential line up expressing the event was a disappointment and a rape of the region’s aspirations to produce a President of North Central extraction for Nigeria.

He added “Sadly, indications and insider information are fully agreed that the Governing All Progressives Congress (APC) is going to toe the PDP’s line in this regard by domiciling her National Chairmanship seat in the North Central to pave way for the presidential candidate to emerge from a more deserving geopolitical zone. This would be a further demonstration of scalding disregard for the feelings of the North Central and her people and we urge the Governing Party to reconsider to avoid passing the wrong information to her teeming supporters across our region”.

The chairman noted that the group has provided Nigeria with the statistics to show that the North Central was the most marginalised geopolitical zone of all in Nigeria since independence in terms of access and occupation of the nation’s two top jobs in all the four republics, or democratic dispensations.

He stated “We have travelled extensively over the last quarter of a year and consulted widely with sitting and past leaders, including Presidents, National and State legislators, leaders of political parties, civil society, Religious leaders, Royal Fathers, eminent personalities, and all manners of stakeholders in the Nigerian project, especially those from the North Central on these matters”.

Dr. Nghargbu K’tso stated that upon reviewing the figures, practically all of the hosts agreed with the group that fairness, equity and justice in Nigeria would be much served if the next President emerged from the North Central.

The Group urged the ruling APC, her National Leader President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR and other leaders to lead with fairness, equity and justice by not summarily benching the hopes of the United middle belt nationalities to participate leading this country in a democracy for another 16 years at least.

For the record, our agitations are not in competition with those of the South East Geopolitical Zone which, like us, is yet to produce the President or Vice President of Nigeria since 1999. Inasmuch as the SE has the consolation price of having produced a Vice President in the 2nd Republic, our claims remain complementary to hers and we do hope the rest of Nigeria will give both regions a chance, he added