Babangida Aliyu, a former Niger State governor, has mentioned President Bola Tinubu must be allowed to finish a second time period according to Nigeria’s unwritten energy rotation association between North and South. He warned that any try by Northern politicians to problem this zoning precept in 2027 might déstabilise nationwide unity and disrupt many years of political consensus.
Talking Thursday on Come up Tv’s The Morning Present, Aliyu cautioned opposition events, notably the African Democratic Congress (ADC), towards fielding Northern presidential aspirants within the subsequent basic election. He criticized the argument that Northern candidates might promise a single time period, calling it a veiled try and shortchange the South, which solely started its eight-year rotation in 2023 with Tinubu’s election.
“If a northerner says he’s serving one time period, what drawback is he creating for the North?” Aliyu requested.
He emphasised that the zoning understanding, although casual, has formed presidential transitions since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. The one deviation occurred in 2010 after the dying of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, when his Southern deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, assumed energy and later contested a full time period.
Below this gentleman’s settlement, the presidency alternates each eight years between the North and South. With Buhari, a Northerner, finishing two phrases from 2015 to 2023, the South is anticipated to retain the presidency till at the least 2031. Aliyu mentioned disrupting this sequence would inflame tensions and undermine belief.
“If we might tolerate the late Muhammadu Buhari for eight years, oh my God, let’s strive it… perhaps by 2031, we will jettison the association if we discover it handy,” he mentioned.
Aliyu’s feedback come amid rising hypothesis that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, one other Northerner, could emerge as a presidential contender beneath the ADC banner in 2027. The ADC has been gaining political traction with current defections, however Aliyu warned that presidential ambitions from the North, even inside new platforms, are “untimely” and probably destabilising.
“For now, solely governors and lawmakers are defecting. By 2031, you could find yourself with a presidential defection. Is that not a constitutional challenge?” he mentioned.
Past zoning, Aliyu questioned the opposition’s preparedness to problem Tinubu’s APC, insisting that ambition alone isn’t sufficient. He urged opposition leaders to articulate clear options, rooted in ideology and coverage, reasonably than persona.
“What’s the various you’re providing? You need to take away the federal government effective. However with what platform, what imaginative and prescient?”
He additionally criticized the Tinubu administration’s failure to speak its achievements, regardless of what he described as some coverage successes. He known as for extra inclusive messaging from all arms of presidency, not simply the Ministry of Info.
“What we’ve seen to date is that the federal government is doing nicely, however they have no idea the best way to talk very nicely,” he mentioned. “Each minister, each head of a parastatal, ought to have the ability to inform the individuals what they’ve been doing,” he mentioned.
