Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has vowed that it will do everything thing within its power to ensure that a Nigerian of northern extraction does not succeed president Muhammadu Buhari.
The National Publicity Secretary PANDEF, Ken Robinson, said the forum will mobilise Nigerians to reject the emergence of another northern president in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
Robinson spoke when the Leadership of the organisation paid the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Prince Adewole Adebayo a consultative visit on Tuesday in Abuja.
Robinson said the forum has met with some British and Dutch officials and it has informed them of what the emergence of a northerner as president portends for the country and what it will do if such occurs.
PANDEF planned to organize people from Niger Delta creeks to clampdown on the alleged injustice against Southern Nigeria.
He said that under the current administration some sections of the country have been treated as if they do not exist, adding that among the 17 military, para-military and Intelligence security agencies in the country, 14 of them are headed by Northerners and only three from Southern Nigeria.
He further noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission Limited has 11 key management and board members, pointing out that while the North has 7 out of these members, the South can boast of just 4.
“When the campaign starts, we will mobilise ourselves, speak to good Nigerians in Northern Nigeria and in Southern Nigeria why the next president of Nigeria should come from the Southern part of Nigeria.
“Anything short of that, and we are not saying this as a threat, yes, we were in a meeting with people from the Dutch Embassy, three days ago I was in a meeting with the British High commissioner, and we told them this thing that Nigeria will no longer be what it has been if the next president goes North.
“The statement is not a threat. And we are serious. We will mobilise our people in the creeks, in the farm lands to the streets across Nigeria to work together.”
Robinson added that the consultation with Southern presidential candidates is to ensure that a credible leader emerges by 2023.
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Adewole Adebayo, who received leadership of PANDEF in Abuja said the meeting was part of a conversation that will help unite Nigeria.
Adebayo said that for him, it was all about the unity of the country , “The unity of Nigeria is number one,” he said, insisting that there was no room for casting doubt on the continuity of Nigeria.
Adebayo vowed that not even a single square meter of the country will be taken away.
“Niger Delta has been a source of stupendous wealth but nothing can be cured with justice,” Adebayo added.