The Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba (Grand Council of Yoruba Youths), on Tuesday, said it would peacefully oppose the Northern Region from retaining the Presidency in 2023.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s second four-year term will end in three years, and speculation is building about which of the country’s three regions or six geopolitical zones will produce the next president.

Agbarijo Egbe Odo Yoruba said it had watched with “keen interest” the trend of events as regards 2023 elections.

It said it believed some Northern leaders were positioning the region to retain the seat, contrary an unspoken agreement for rotation of the office.

The group’s Aare Apapo (President General), Comrade Awa Bamiji argued that the Presidency is the turn of the Yoruba and he urged the supporters of another northern candidature to withdraw their claims in the interest of national unity.

Bamji, who stated this in a statement, referenced a video interview by “our dear friend, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), which has gone viral on social media.”

He said Yerima “dreamt about the Northern Region retaining Presidency in 2023, based on his arithmetic calculations of the number of years the Northern and the Southern Parts of the country would have stayed in power by 2023 since 1999…

“We strongly believe that his unwarranted voice came as a follow -up to the earlier advocacy by Prof Ango Abdullahi, Chairman, Northern Elders Forum, that his group would support any Party that puts forward a Candidate of Northern extraction in 2023

“Another Northern Elder, Junaid Muhammed, said the North had the number and therefore in the next 100 years, they were supposed to be in control of power in Nigeria.

According to him, the North should concede the Presidency to other regions because it has enjoyed a longer shot at the office.

Bamji said: “If we are to count the number of years the North and South stayed in power, it is still obvious that North has short changed the South since 1960 till date.

“This imbalance especially during the military eras is what this democracy is trying to correct by recognising a gentleman agreement of rotational presidency of eight years each for the North and South. (The Nation)