Published on: April 3, 2025
Content:
By Omeiza Ajayi
Ahead of the 2027 general election, a northern coalition under the aegis of the North Central Renaissance Movement (NCRM) has decried the continued marginalization of the North Central and demanded a power shift to the zone.
NCRM, in a communique issued after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, noted that having not produced an elected president or vice president since independence, the zone comprising;
Niger, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kwara and the FCT- Abuja should be given the chance to occupy the Presidency.
The coalition added that “if the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, chooses to give President Bola Tinubu the right of first refusal to fly the party’s ticket in 2027, then it must ensure his running mate emerges from North Central while other political parties must feature presidential candidates from the zone”.
The chairman of the coalition, Prof. Nghargbu K’tso, who read the communique, bemoaned the situation in which no one from the zone had held the offices of president and vice president since independence.
He said the zone has only produced the highest number of national chairmen of ruling parties since 1999.
K’tso noted that Nigeria’s experience with military interregnums was an aberration, operating under paradigms entirely different from hallowed democratic tenets and processes; hence, the coalition’s demand is for a democratically elected president and vice president.
He said that an enumeration of Nigerian presidents and vice presidents since 1999 showed that only the Northcentral and the Southeast geopolitical zones had not occupied these offices in the 26 years of the 4th Republic.
The NCRM leader, however, said the case of the Northcentral was worse than that of the Southeast in that the latter had the consolation of having produced Dr Alex Ekwueme from 1979 to 1983 via democratic elections and again in 1983 when he won re-election for a second term in office as vice president to Shehu Shagari before their removal by the military.
He said, “The position of chairman of a political party serves to make powerful individuals without corresponding constitutional powers to help their people or region with the fruits of governance and development. Here, in this barren position, the North Central, for some reason, has dominated.
Our leaders have concluded that despite their many years in top leadership as Governors, Senators or Ministers, they are by some unspoken code ineligible, unqualified or excluded from contesting to fly their parties’ flags as Presidential Candidates.
“From all appearances, they do not even see themselves emerging as Vice Presidential Candidates. The big question is why? This mindset, whether real or imagined, is one that the present generation must stop before it infects and affects coming generations in the North Central. That is why the NCRM was birthed as a voice of reason and advocacy for the Zone, and there is no better time than the current political dispensation to terminate this unwholesome trajectory. We do this by proving that we have the same aspirational liberties as any of our fellow citizens from any part of Nigeria.
“The NCRM has a simple demand to make in this regard — we implore our leaders to aim higher as we are not ‘second class’ citizens in this country.
“Having outlined above how the North Central’s historical exclusion from the top 2 offices in the nation outstrips any claims to political marginalization by any other geopolitical zone, we speak strongly that the demands of equity, fairness, justice and political inclusiveness can begin to be met by the lead opposition party, the PDP, and the governing party, the APC, picking their 2027 presidential and vice presidential candidates from our zone respectively.
“All other political parties that aspire to lead this Country in two years should also take a cue from this expected political justice sought by the People of the North Central. Such an action will simultaneously satisfy the demands of political astuteness expected of any Party which has her hands on the pulse of the Nation.
“Every progressive-minded Nigerian and indeed all people of goodwill will not fail to see how in this 4th Republic, the North West, North East, South-South and South West have fared better than the North Central and the South East which are still at zero years in terms of access and ascension to the two top offices in the Presidency.
“That is our contention, and it should be the contention of any politically astute person, that, in the run-up to 2027, all political parties must be acutely alive and responsive to the demands of social justice within the context of the realities shaping up now which would ultimately culminate into determining the 2027 Presidential race.
“Likewise, politically, the Northcentral zone has always stood shoulder to shoulder with our kindred in the North West and North East in all elections as staunchly as differences in political parties will allow, supporting their Presidential Candidates as though they were ours directly.
“The Congress of NCRM therefore resolved that now is the time to request for the same support from our brother geopolitical zones in the North, for Northcentral Presidential Candidates (President and Vice President as the case may be), in 2027 in all major Political Parties. It is one practical way of reassuring us that we are not mere adjuncts but bona fide stakeholders in the One North project, fully entitled to our rights to aspire and run for the two top leadership positions in this Country.
“It is on this premise that we, the North Central Renaissance Movement (NCRM) demand in the interest of fairness, equity and justice that the Office of President of Nigeria be ceded to the North Central in 2027,” the communique added.
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