2023 presidency: Southern politicians warned against accepting running mate position –Edwin Clark

Elder statesman and the Leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark has revealed that southern politicians have been warned not to accept running mate positions from any northern candidate if the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) refuse to zone the presidency to the south.

Clark disclosed this Friday in Abuja while interacting with select journalists, saying any southern politician that accepts such a position would be regarded as unpatriotic.

His words: “We strongly warn our politicians, former governors, ministers, senators and so forth not to accept a running mate position from any northern candidate because they cannot do with us and we cannot do without them.

“That will show how serious we are and anybody who offers himself as a running mate will be regarded as the most unpatriotic and a man who has sold his own side of the country and not worthy of being respected and honoured.”

He also described the growing number of presidential aspirants from the southern part of the country as madness and unrealistic.

He said most of the aspirants from the south that have declared interest to contest for president in 2023 are playing double games.

Clark wondered where aspirants from the ruling APC were getting N100 million to pay for the forms considering the level of hunger in the country.

He stated: “It is madness. if I’m to be realistic they are not serious; particularly the southerners from the South-West and the South-South. There are some people that have gone to be bottle bags to play double games. So when it comes to where we say no, some people would come out to say yes we are contesting. So they know why some of them are there.

“You have everybody in Nigeria where there is hunger, where there is lack of employment, where there is kidnapping going on every day, where children cannot go to school, where the economy is going down, these people were able to mobilize N100 million to pick form.”