that the region must provide the nation’s next leader. But NEF, in its most recent submission on the nation’s polity, rejected the push to have Nigeria’s next president come from the southern region. NEF spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said on Sunday at a lecture in memory of the late Maitama Sule in Zaria Kaduna State. According to him, NEF will not allow the 2023 presidency to be zoned to the southern part of the country, insisting that the position is a democratic office that will be determined by the majority. He maintained that there is nothing wrong if the north produces the next president after Muhammadu Buhari, adding that this is possible not because the north is superior to others, but because the rules of politics avail the region a great opportunity. The NEF spokesman stressed that the north will never be cowed into submission, nor forced to give up in the quest to retain power in 2023 considering its huge human population that gives the region an advantage over others.