The spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has given some conditions for a politician from the South to become the next president.

Speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday, Baba-Ahmed called on Nigerians to see beyond religious and ethnic sentiments during the 2023 general elections.

He said the demands by the southern governors that the region must produce the next president were not presented properly.

“You cannot threaten us with violence and intimidation. We can read the constitution; we know what it takes to be the president. You have to score at least 25 percent in 24 states. There are no 24 states in the north, which means no northerner can become president unless he gets support from the southern part of the country.

“By the same token, no southerner can become president unless he gets support from the north. We understand this; we are not ignorant. We know there will be a time when someone from the south will become president.

“But it must be a president that will emerge through the political and electoral process. He must be a president that southerners and northerners both like and vote to make him or her president.

“He must be a Nigerian president, not an ethnic president, not a regional president, not a religious president,” Baba-Ahmed said.