North cannot stop Tinubu in 2027 — Northern Group
The North cannot stop President Bola Tinubu from doing a second term in office in 2027 as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, because the North does not need political power now.
This was the submission of a Northern group, Arewa Think Tank in Kaduna on Monday.
The Convener of the group, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu stated this after a prayer session for Tinubu’s 72nd birthday at Arewa house, Kaduna, while fielding questions from journalists.
According to him, a Northerner was at the helms of affairs for eight years without impacting positively on the region.
Adding that the North does not need political power but infrastructural and educational development by a leader who cares for the region.
Yakubu admonished Northerners to face the bitter truth, put regional sentiments aside and support Tinubu’s second term in office to ensure development in the zone.
He queried, “Why will North stop President Tinubu, how can North stop him in 2027 after somebody from the North has done eight years?
According to him, “Nigeria needs peace and to have peace in the country, the North has no option, no alternative than to vote Tinubu for another second term so that he can do eight years as well. What the North should be thinking now is infrastructural and educational development.”
He posited that because of the huge challenges facing the region now, it does not need political power now.
We must put our house in order and tell each other the bitter truth. Insecurity challenges which we hoped that former President Muhammadu Buhari would have dealt with, only got worse. That means political power has no value for the North.
“However, it is all about democracy and politics when people begin to struggle to run for the presidency, probably to beat Tinubu to it. Everybody has the right to contest for any political position in the country. They have the right as enshrined in our constitution of freedom to associate.
He, however, said anybody that wants to contest can go ahead and contest, “but for us at Arewa Think Tank, nobody can stop us from supporting the President. All we know is that he will be in power for eight years.
“We had a Northern President who stayed in power for eight years. So there is no reason why we will not support President Tinubu for eight years. So far he has done a lot of work and infrastructure across the country.
“I was watching the Minister of works, David Umahi saying that Abuja, Kaduna, Kano highways will be completed this year. This is very encouraging because the last administration in the last eight years could not fix it.
“And look at President Tinubu, in less than one year in office, he is promising us that he will complete it. That is encouraging. So all we need to do is to continue to support and pray for him. Like I earlier said at the initial take off of Tinubu’s government, we in the Arewa Think Tank will give him one to one and half years before we start criticising him.
“We want to give him some benefit of the doubt, we want to give him a breathing space because of the enormity of the challenges he inherited. It won’t be fair in less than one year to start criticising him.”
The group, Yakubu said, can always reach Tinubu through the proper channel and they had earlier promised that they will watch his administration for more than one year before they will come out publicly to criticise him if he does not do well.
“Until he failed to work on those areas we advised him, that is when we will start to criticise him. But for the time being we will support him and continue to pray for him,” he said.
