The Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development has vouched support for the clamour for presidency to rotate to the Southeast come 2023.
The group, which said its support was borne out of the need for every zone to have a sense of belonging, flayed the marginalisation of the Southeast geo-political zone since 1999.
The National Coordinator of the Coalition, Zana Goni, and National Women Leader, Mario Bichi, in a joint statement, appealed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone their presidential tickets to the Southeast region.
They emphasised the need for all political interest groups to support the Southeast zone to steer the affairs of Nigeria for the sake of justice and equity.
The statement reads: “Since President Muhammadu Buhari is from the North, the right thing is that the next president should come from Southern Nigeria and since Southwest and Southsouth have occupied the office, the Southeast is next in line in the spirit of the rotation principle, fairness, equity and justice.
“This will end the manifest marginalisation of the Southeast. It will foster national unity, and also close the bitterness of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war…”