The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, yesterday reiterated his call for the presidency to return to the south in 2023.
Akeredolu, who stated this during the one-year remembrance of Prof. Bankole Oke of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, noted power rotation had been an unwritten agreement in the country since the return to civil rule in 1999.
He said in order not to distort the arrangement, the subtle arrangement needed to be maintained.
Delivering a lecture entitled, ‘Nigeria: The politics of religion in a transitional society, Akeredolu advised Nigerians to make sure that power did not return to the North under what he described as the guise of a party picking a southerner as its vice presidential candidate.
The Ondo State Governor said, “There appears to be an understanding that power must rotate between the North and the South. This understanding witnessed the contest of two candidates from the South-West for the Presidency.
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“It was part of the unwritten agreement that the power equation must be balanced to allay the fear of domination harboured by the people of the South. There is a conscious attempt not to disrupt the extant agreement. There has been a seamless transition from one civilian regime to another since 1999, the longest in the political history of the country.
“The current political permutations raise strong suspicions on an undeclared motive to thwart the arrangement that has been working for the country. The rotation of the office of the President is between the North and the South since the inception of the Fourth Republic.”
He warned Nigerians to beware of the tricks of desperate politicians using religion to divide the people.
