A highly respectable Nigerian from the Southeast engaged me last night in a serious discourse for almost an hour after he read my writeup on this same subject on this page.
He wanted me to share my opinion with him on each of the six-point communique issued by the Southern Governors, to which I told him that I would comment on only one, the issue of a Southerner must be the next President of this country.
The rest of the points, I told him, would be best tackled by the federal government.
My respectable friend then asked what do I make of the Southern governors’ demand that the next president should come from the region?
It is political immaturity and a sign of inferiority complex, I told him. In any case, from all indications, it must be the PDP Governors agenda.
Unfortunately for them, no organisation or an individual can impose a candidate, intimidate or compel the North to do its bidding.
The fact of the matter is, the APC will no doubt produce its presidential candidate from the South. So, the PDP (South) realised that APC will win the 2023 presidential election by landslide, irrespective of whether [Ahmed Bola] Tinubu, [Vice President Yemi] Osinbajo or [Rotimi] Amaechi is the candidate.
You cannot be, virtually on daily basis, openly cursing, demonising and even killing people of Northern extraction in your sub-region and expect them to vote for you to become their President.
The PDP Southern Governors kept mute, while IPOB/ESN/Igboho had their inglorious time of killing Northerners, destroying their property including the mass killing of cattle and burning of trailer trucks that conveyed produce and animals.
The North refused to retaliate, because of its political maturity and knowing that these same politicians that refused to do anything to stop the carnage while it lasted, will before 2023, come with cap in hand begging for votes.
We shall then tell them: you cannot despise a people and then seek for their votes.
Iyawa is a former Nigerian ambassador to Mexico
