By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Ohanaeze Igbo Women Organisation Worldwide has slammed the Director of Publicity and Advocacy Northern Elders Forum, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, for calling on people who do not want a Northerner as President in 2023 to leave the country when it happens.

Baba-Ahmed made the statement at the maiden Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series organised by the student wing of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

Reacting to the statement, the President General, Ohanaeze Igbo Women Organisation Worldwide, Chief Hon Mrs Calista Nkiru Adimachukwu, said that the era of arrogance has passed.

She said that the North cannot produce Nigerian President without the support of the South according to the Nigerian Constitution.

She said in a statement issued on Tuesday: “My response to Hakeem Baba-Ahmed on the 7th of July 2021 settled the matter. The era of arrogant disposition by those so called Northern leaders who claim to speak for the North is now a defunct story. A word is enough for the wise.

“The arrogance of the Northern Elders’ Forum would be settled At least there won’t be any further need after 2023 for the Northern Elders’ Forum to be making provocative statements on issues bothering on the Presidency of Nigeria.

“For avoidance of doubt, my reply to him on the 7th of July 2021 when the Southern Governors issued a communique on their meeting which was held on the 5th of July 2021, that the president of Nigeria should go to the South in 2023. I stated clearly then that

“But since the North is very determined to Lord over the Southern Nigeria perpetually, then they can prepare their votes and vote a President of Northern Nigeria and not a President of the entire Nigeria.

The Igbo Women Organization reiterated that it stands by the decision and stance of the Southern Governors’ Forum that the 2023 Presidency belongs to the South.