2023 Polls: Southern/Middle Belt Leaders Demand Zoning, Restructuring OKNEWS.

2023 Polls: Southern/Middle Belt Leaders Demand Zoning, Restructuring

OKNEWS LINE

Updated

May 31, 2021

By: Loveth Mohmoh

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, leaders from the southern region and the middle belt are demanding that the presidency be zoned to the south in the overall interest of Nigeria as a united country.

The leader of the group, Chief Edwin Clark stated this on Sunday during a press conference in Abuja, describing the ongoing constitutional amendment exercise by the National Assembly, as fraudulent.

He also insisted on a total restructuring of Nigeria and a brand new constitution fashioned after the 1963 constitution.

“The South should be ready to have the next President, without that, no Nigeria. We want to restructure of Nigeria if there has to be a Nigeria to continue,” he said.

“We want the zoning to continue, it is conventional. When the Constitution did not provide for a succession when Yar’ Adua was ill, the convention was adopted.

“Even though zoning is not part of our 1999 Constitution or our party institution, it has been an acceptable convention.”

The elder statesman said the country needs a brand-new constitution, adding that the 1963 Constitution recognised the country as a four-legged country where each region developed at its own pace, which was not the case in recent times.

According to him, the situation of things is such that one state that is not developed would be dragging a developed state down.