Pro-Jonathan leaders begin campaign for South-south presidency

By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

South-south political leaders working in conjunction with their northern counterparts, to draft former President Goodluck Jonathan into the 2023 presidential race have launched their first strategy to actualize their plan.

The elders, who came under the auspices of South-south Presidency 2023, held their first public meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State at the weekend.

The Nation had in February reported that four All Progressives Congress (APC) governors from the North were planning to draft Jonathan into the race and that a group of 10 politicians from the South-south was given the mandate to begin a campaign to realise the plot.

The report further clarified that as part of the plan, the political leaders would first focus their sensitisation on the need for the South-south to complete its presidential tenure.

The Uyo meeting at the weekend had in attendance the Protem Chairman of the group, Chief Dikivie Ikiogha, Mr. Ini Udonwa, Dr. Didi Opiuyo, Major A. Oputa, Mr. Okon Ita, Barr. Oyemah-Iwe Jahswill and Dr. Uwamose Amadasun.

Ikiogha, a former Chief of Staff in Bayelsa State and chairman of the group, is a known political ally of Jonathan

The group after its deliberation called on all the political blocs across the country to work for the emergence of a candidate from the South-south as the President of the country.

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They also appealed to politicians from the zone to resist the temptation of aspiring for the positions of a vice-president or a national chairman of any major political parties in the country.

In a communique, they jointly signed, the leaders, asked all ethnic nationalities in the country to support their project.

They said: “The group is committed to advocating for a President of South-South extraction come 2023.

“The group accepts and stands by the position of leaders of the Southern and Middle belt that no South-south person aspires to or accepts to become the vice-presidential candidate or chairman of any political party in the country.

“The group will reach out to and engage all the states of the federation as well as ethnic nationalities, to look into this project.”

They further advised the National Assembly to create an opportunity for all Nigerians to give themselves a people’s constitution that would allow for true federalism.