By ALABA-OLUSOLA OKE

The Chairman of the Yoruba Ronu Group (YRG), Prince Diran Iyantan, on Friday expressed support for calls that Presidency should be zoned to the South in 2023.

Iyantan, who stated this in a statement in Akure, cautioned politicians promoting the concept of a northern presidency.

He said that the call for a northern presidency could be viewed as an attempt to heat up the polity and to “further polarize the country for more troubles than the ones on our hands at present.”

Iyantan, a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Ondo State, alleged that Nigerian political elite were deliberately promoting disunity as a political weapon.

“Acts like that, clearly, demonstrate negative imagery of the country and is capable of misleading the country on a journey of departure from its present station of peace and prosperity.

“Politicians, during this season of elections, must focus on those positive areas pertinent to uniting us as a nation.

”Everyone must ensure that what is passed across to the public are materials that enhance national peace, unity and development in view of the critical time the country is passing through.

“Favorable unifying comments are what should be promoted in the media to ensure that tensions are not further exacerbated,” he said.

He urged politicians to observe decorum during electioneering.

“The rank and file of our political class must shun acts capable of promoting disunity. We must ensure that words said by us are those that project cohesion, but not chaos.

“We must express our love for this country rather than emphasise on tribal and religious differences and generative of wrong belief in deluding a section of the country to appear superior to others.

“The only major factor to the sustenance of unity in the country is continual rotational presidency.

“The falsehood preached around that the ‘southern candidates do not have the numerical strength to win an election’ must be jettisoned for the unity of our dear motherland,” he stated.

Iyantan urged political parties participating in the 2023 elections to consider presidential candidates from the southern part of the country for equity, fairness and justice.

“However, for the sake of equity, fairness and justice, we must, in earnest, right the wrong ahead of such occurrences.

“Therefore, ‘southern presidency’, this time around, in 2023, should be considered sacrosanct to the continual unity of the nation,” he said. (NAN)

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