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Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor must be a southerner.
The governor said this while delivering the 45th convocation lecture of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Saturday, December 11, 2021.
In September, Akeredolu said southern governors have unanimously agreed that the 2023 presidency must be zoned to their region for the sake of justice and fairness.
The governor, who is the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum maintained that his counterparts in the region have all agreed to oppose any political party that fields a northern candidate for president in 2023.
Speaking at the convocation in Ile-Ife, Akeredolu said; “All persons must own the process of development in the country. No section must feel marginalized. In 2023, power must shift to the South.”
He said Nigeria would lose its identity with the way things are going in the country.
Akeredolu also said the country has the capacity to overcome its challenges, adding that lack of trust and credibility deficiency was the bane of Nigeria’s development.
“No nation survives on hand-outs from other climes. Loss of identity is too big a pride to pay for the new social order. Any society which suffers such misfortune can only develop to the extent to which the logic of domination and dependence permits.
All the adventure in constitutional administration of the colonial territory failed to take into account the peculiarities of the people who had been forced to live together under one central administration for the first time. I pray we are not doomed.” he said.
Also speaking, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented at the ceremony by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said the university has achieved many feats.
Some of the dignitaries that attended the convocation ceremony are the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Babatunde Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, founder of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State and Chairman, Elizade Group of Companies, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, the Etsu Nupe and Chancellor of the university, Alhaji Yahata Abubakar, and the Pro-Chancellor, Owelle Oscar Udoji.