Influential Northern groups, Arewa Consultative Forum and the Northern Elders’ Forum have reiterated their earlier stand that power must return to the north in 2015.
The groups were joined by four other groups in making the demand, they include; the Arewa Reawakening Forum, Arewa Research and Development Project, Northern Union and the Code Group, Punch reports.
The demand was made at a news conference in Kaduna, where the groups asked President Goodluck Jonathan to respect the alleged existing agreement made in 2011 that the Presidency would return to the north in 2015, saying the agreement must be strictly followed.
Speaking on behalf of the groups, former special Adviser on Food Security to former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, warned that if political parties to the pact failed to adhere to field northern candidates, the North would take advantage of its numerical strength to ensure that power returned to the region in 2015.
It will be recalled that the North had reportedly resolved to adopt the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as its consensus candidate for 2015 as reports had earlier stated that the election of Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC had changed the political calculations in Northern Nigeria.
