2023: South-South Has One Tenure Left – Group

A group, the South-South Presidency in 2023, has debunked insinuations that former President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted to run for the 2023 presidency.

This was as the group however said that it would ensure that any political party that presents a Vice Presidential candidate from the zone would be rejected by the people as vice president will not get the support of the people, adding that anybody that wants to run for thepresidency from the South-south zone will be supported as the people would be very happy about it.

National Chairman of the South-South Presidency in 2023, Chief Dikivie Ikiogha, who spoke on behalf of the group, said it would be wrong for anyone to allege tha Jonathan has accepted to run in 2023.

In the words of Ikiogha; “When it has not happened and people want to put the record in a wrong way, that is not good.

“I have just seen a publication credited to the group, saying that the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan has accepted to run for the presidency. That is not correct,” he explained.

Ikiogha further said that his group was consolidating its stand by trying to mobilise and enlighten the South-South on the need to produce the next President, adding that members of the group visited Jonathan recently.

According to him; “So we have been visiting people, making consultations here and there and visiting people, just as we visited other people or aspirants or suspected aspirants, we also visited him (Jonathan). And he cannot of course push us out. He is the father of South-South politics today.

So, if we want to take a major decision that concerns the South-South, there is no way we cannot meet him and sell our idea to him, which we did. That is the stand of the South-South Presidency in 2023. That it is our turn to present the next President. We want to complete our tenure. We have one tenure left.

“If we are going to be united and move ahead, move together in this country, whether we are minority or not, we should be given a chance to complete our tenure before we can call ourselves brothers,” he said.

“We have told our leaders that nobody should accept the chairmanship of a party or a vice-presidential candidate of a party. So, if anybody wants to come out, we have the political know-how to run that political party down,” he vowed.