The Niger Delta Youth Congress on Sunday called on all political parties in Nigeria to pick their presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections from the core South-South geo-political zone.
Picking their candidates from South-South, the group said, will ensure balance, unity, and guarantee national security, and strategic partnership between the North and South.
Rising from a conference in Warri, Delta State on Sunday, the group stated that “if the demand is heeded to by the political parties and all parties involved, Nigeria will be on the right track of development, peace progress, and unity”
NDYC which claimed to represent the six states of the South-South in addressing issues of injustices, deprivations, and socio-political and environmental challenges in the Niger Delta Region, also sought an alliance between South-South and the North in the forthcoming political dispensation.
According to the group, the main option to balance the unity of the nation lies in striking a strategic partnership between the North and the core South-South.
A communique issued at the end of the conference and signed jointly by the group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Israui Uwojeyan, and the National Secretary, Comrade Bakpa Orehime, noted the ongoing agitation for power by the political stakeholders in the South-west and the South-east concluding that the nation “will be faced with dire uncertainties if power goes to any of the above zones agitating for power”.
The group said, “The core South-South is the pivotal zone to bring about collective sense of security and national unity between all the geopolitical zones
“The core South-South is a people whom other parts of the country, especially the North has come to trust and depend upon for the political and socio-economic development of Nigeria, and there has never been a betrayal from them because of their patriotism and foresight in promoting unity and stability, and the time to strengthen that bond is now.
“We want to reiterate boldly that political parties zone their presidential slot to the core South-South people who have all the qualities to emerge as the next president of Nigeria.
“If this demand by us is heeded by the political parties and all parties involved, Nigeria will be on the right track of development, peace progress, and unity.
“We are not stopping this demand here today, but we will use our structures across the country to reach out to other parts of the country, especially the northern region whom we have had a long-existing strategic relationship with, to ensure that political parties that are preparing to hold their primaries zone their presidential slot to core South-South.
“Our message to presidential aspirants is for them to have a rethink and not to be carried away by their wealth, power, and do-or-die strategies, but should join hands and heads to support a presidential candidate from the core South-South geopolitical zone.
“We have resolved as a people in the South to ensure the next president of Nigeria is from the extraction of the core South-South irrespective of his or her political affiliations.”
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