The Arewa Consultative Forum, a pro-North social-political organization, and several notable voices from the country’s northern area have stated that President Bola Tinubu cannot be pushed to run for re-election in 2027.
The ACF and other northern leaders said that no individual could claim to be the North’s mouthpiece, and hence it was incorrect for the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, to encourage the North to wait until 2031 before running for president.
They spoke against the backdrop of Ganduje’s warning to northern politicians with presidential ambitions in 2027 to abandon the idea, pledging that Tinubu will serve two terms in government.
Ganduje made the statement on Tuesday while receiving a delegation from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Media Centre and Tinubu Northern Youth Forum at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
According to him, it would be wrong to deny Tinubu the opportunity to be re-elected after allowing another northerner to complete his eight-year term.
The APC National Chairman promised that the party would carefully follow the zoning procedure and stick to the North-South share formula.
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.”
The Arewa Consultative Forum rejected Ganduje’s demand, stating that the North cannot afford to wait till 2031 for the presidency.
Speaking with our correspondent, the ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, stated that Ganduje’s comment reflects the cult-like mentality of the administration, in which allegiance to the president is important.
“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 reiterated 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.
Sharing similar sentiments, a former ally-turned-foe of 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.
He said, “The North is seriously mobilizing 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.’
“So, there’s that consensus. Everybody understands that if we are to continue with these policies for another four years, northern Nigeria will become one large refugee camp. So, there’s a consensus that for self-preservation alone, we must look for another candidate.”
Babachir said the state of origin of the candidate doesn’t matter, noting that the important thing is for the candidate to understand the need for one Nigeria.
He added, “Now, that is where quite a number of people think that it is only right to find someone who is patriotic and sees Nigeria as one, even if it’s from the South or the North. Some want it to come from the South, while others are saying we cannot take the risk of bringing a southerner for self-preservation alone. So, that is where the divergence is.
“But we all agree that we must look for a substitute for Bola Tinubu. Unfortunately, quite a lot of people like Ganduje and other northerners benefiting directly from this government are just irritants. They are people who are talking to justify their positions in this rogue government. So they are justifying their place in it, not caring what the other parts of northern Nigeria are going through.
“So, if we can get a good southerner that can rule with equity, we are okay. It’s not actually about the elite consensus. It’s about the masses and what they are saying at the bottom. Even if some elites pretend to be supporting Bola, they will not vote for him because they are the ones at the receiving end of this thing. They are also the ones directing us, political elites of northern origin, to make sure this man doesn’t have a second chance.”
