Former Nigerian lawmaker, Shehu Sani, has cautioned Northern leaders against a purported plan to oust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from office in the 2027 presidential elections, stressing that such actions could harm Nigeria’s unity.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS, Sani urged Northern leaders to reconsider their strategy, suggesting they engage with the policies and initiatives of Tinubu’s administration that could benefit the Northern region, which faces challenges like insecurity and poverty.
“There is evidence of rallying of forces, regrouping of forces- political forces from the North- trying to use former President Buhari as a rallying point in order to evict the government of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and they hope to resurrect his political chance in the house of the masses and portray the government as one that has been undermining the North and one that has not been living up to its campaign promises to the region being that it has its highest votes from there. And I must warn that attempts to do that can create a serious problem for our country,” Sani stated.
“Buhari has been in power for eight years, and there has never been any serious Southerner that challenged his own government in terms of trying to remove him out of office. And secondly, we should know that before you think of power, we should think of the whole country. We should be thinking of a united country, a peaceful country. Nigeria is still a fragile nation. What will happen if Southern politicians decide to also form the idea of uniting themselves and making a position that this is their stand? There will be no Nigeria.
“So, they should, in the interest of the unity of the country and the future of the country, sacrifice their own personal ambition at least for 2027, and the North will have the moral right to ask for power after the second term of this administration.”
“This desperation for power will not go well for the region, for the unity and collective peace of our country as a nation,” he added.
Emphasising the need for Northern leaders to address the problems faced in their region, Sani said, “It’s a historical fact that people from the North have been in political power for a longer time, and that power was an opportunity for them to use to develop the regime, to address the problems of insecurity, of education, of underdevelopment, and of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. But unfortunately, that power that ought to have been used that way was misused.
“It (the Northern Region) is ahead in poverty index, it lags behind in industry, and it lags behind in many aspects of development. It’s a serious concern because part of the problem we are facing in the north today as far as security can be rooted in a history of bad governance, a history of corruption, a history of insensitive leaders, and a history of people who ought to have used power to develop their own part of the country, which they have not been able to do that. So, power has not been of use to Northern Nigeria for the period which it has lasted.”
Sani then said, “For the fact that the North has been behind in a number of indices of development, there should have been a concerted effort in terms of bringing development to that part of the country. But look at what we are having now- in the last eight years before the coming of this administration, in 2015 there was so much hope, there was so much belief and faith that the leadership that took over at that time will address these fundamental issues, but it was not.
Today, the states in the North-West are facing serious problems of banditry, kidnappings, and killings by all sorts of violent groups. In the North-East, Boko Haram, ISIS and other terrorist groups are still holding sway, despite the fact that not only the North has been in power from 2015–2023, but major organs of government were headed by people from that region, and they have not actually used it for development. So now, I think the fact that someone from the South has taken over, there appears to be an organised attempt for them to resurrect their power base and see how they can return to power.
“So, power should be of use to the masses… in the North, power should address their poverty, should address their insecurity, should address the issues of development, and not power should be used to enrich an insignificant few who simply are parasitic on the economy of the country.”
He also said there is a need for the Tinubu administration to go ahead with the issue of restructuring, as he said it will be a systemic opportunity for Nigerians to address the problems of underdevelopment and for the North to “come back home and see what it can do with its resources to address the problem that it is facing for more than a decade or two.”
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
