Two months after their May 11 meeting in Delta State tagged the ‘Asaba Accord’, the Southern Governors Forum, yesterday, met in Lagos State where it declared that Nigeria’s next president should be from the southern part of the country.
Other far-reaching decisions arrived at as contained in the communiqué released, which was signed by the convener, Ondo State Governor and Chairman, Southern Governors’ Forum, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), include a rejection of the proposed allocation of at least 30 per cent of the profit generated by the proposed Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited for the exploration of oil in ‘frontier basins’ as identified by Section 9 of the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill; setting a timeline of September 1, 2021 for promulgation of the anti-open grazing law in all 17 member states; and asking that security agencies must notify them as chief security officers of their states before they carry out any operation within their domain.
The class of 17 governors in the now famous ‘Lagos Declaration’ unanimously agreed that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between Southern and Northern Nigeria. The incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari, from the Northern region will complete his two terms of eight years by May 29, 2023.Specifically, the Southern governors want all the major political parties to field politicians from the South as their presidential candidates as they did in 1999. (Guardian)