Pro-North social-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, and some prominent voices from the northern region of the country have said the region cannot be forced to re-elect President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The ACF and other northern leaders declared that no individual could claim to be the mouthpiece of the North and, as such, it was wrong for the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, to ask the North to wait till 2031 before vying for the Presidency.
They spoke against the backdrop of Ganduje’s warning to northern politicians nursing presidential ambition in 2027 to bury the idea, vowing that Tinubu would complete two terms in office.
Ganduje made the assertion on Tuesday when he received a delegation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Media Centre and Tinubu Northern Youth Forum at the party national Secretariat in Abuja.
According to him, it would be unfair to deny Tinubu the chance of being re-elected after a fellow northerner was allowed to finish his tenure of eight years.
The APC National Chairman pledged that the party would religiously follow the zoning process by ensuring that the North-South sharing formula is strictly adhered to.
Ganduje said, “When a leader from the northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next president in our party should come from the south. Luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians.
“Our president has come from the south and is going, Insha Allah, for a second term come 2027. And after that, it will be the turn of the northern part of this country.”
But a former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, shared an opinion by one Uche Diala, a member of the APC, who warned that if care is not taken President Tinubu may be given the ‘Goodluck Jonathan treatment’ ahead of the next presidential election.
The post asserted that the relationship between Tinubu and the North had deteriorated less than two years into his administration.
El-Rufai has been attacking the ruling party and the policies of the Tinubu government, even as political gladiators across the party lines continued to mull the idea of floating a coalition capable of defeating the APC.
The Arewa Consultative Forum rejected Ganduje’s call, stressing that the North cannot afford to wait till 2031 for Presidency.
Speaking with our correspondent, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Prof Tukur Muhammad-Baba, asserted that Ganduje’s comment is a reflection of the cult-like nature of the presidency, where allegiance to the president is paramount.
“Given the nature of the Presidency, it has become something like a cult; a personality cult and allegiance to the president because it looks like the president wants total allegiance and nothing else.
“We are in the season of politics and you should expect that those who are near the corridors of power should express those things. But it’s not constitutional,” Muhammad-Baba said.
He emphasised that voters cannot be influenced by force, saying it is up to them to endorse, reject, or modify Ganduje’s opinion.
“There’s nothing new in what Ganduje said. So many people have said so before. Not too long ago, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume said the same thing that northerners should forget about it until 2031.
“He or she or party members cannot influence voters by force. So, what he said was an opinion and his personal opinion and it’s up to the voters to endorse, reject or modify what he said. I think voters are becoming wise as to where the president comes from. In 2015, we were sold a dummy of anti-corruption.
“We were sold a dummy of many things and people have realized that it wasn’t true. Then, of course, the Renewed Hope came in 2023 and the hope is turning into a nightmare. What will sell President Bola Tinubu, I think and I hope, is not whether he will contest or not, it will be his policies and their impact on the people. If they buy it, fine,” he noted.
A former APC National Vice Chairman (North-West), Mallam Salihu Lukman, threw his weight behind the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
He told The PUNCH that, “El-Rufai is not saying anything different from what I have been saying all these while. The only difference is that he is talking for the North while I talk for the whole country.”
Also, Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has declared once again that he remains the right candidate for President in the 2027 general elections.
Reacting to Ganduje’s admonition for the North to wait till 2031 for Tinubu to finish his second term before aspiring for the Presidency, Mohammed, who spoke through his Commissioner for Natural Resources Development, Maiwada Bello, described Ganduje’s comment as silly.
Bello urged the youths to rally around Governor Mohammed, saying that he had set a national precedent by appointing more youths into key positions in government than any other governor in Nigeria.
The commissioner said the Bauchi governor’s bold move underscores his administration’s commitment to youth empowerment and inclusive governance, adding that he deserves the collective support of the Nigerian populace to propel him to the country’s highest political office in 2027.
He said, “We are committed to building a government that reflects the energy and innovation of the youth. No other administration in the country has given young people as many opportunities to serve in high-level positions as my administration.”
In an interview, a former ally-turned-foe of the President Tinubu, Babachir Lawal, affirmed that the North can never forgive Tinubu over the manner he allegedly brought suffering to the region through his nail-biting reforms.
The former SGF reiterated El-Rufai’s warning that the North is massively mobilising its people ahead of the 2027 polls.
He stated, “The North is seriously mobilising with a consensus that Bola Tinubu must give way in the 2027 election. This is no doubt about the consensus. There’s no argument about that. I may not have been supporting El-Rufai’s position. But on this one, I will join him to see how we can stop Bola Tinubu from winning the 2027 election. Because if he does win, you know there will be one large refugee camp.’
