Former Kaduna lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has issued a stern warning to northern leaders against attempting to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential elections. Sani believes such actions could threaten the unity of Nigeria.
In an interview with Arise Television on Thursday, Sani urged northern leaders to support the Tinubu administration’s policies that benefit the northern region instead of seeking more political power. He expressed concern over the regrouping of northern political forces aiming to use former President Buhari as a rallying point to undermine Tinubu’s government.
“There is evidence of rallying of forces, regrouping of political forces from the North, trying to use former President Buhari as a rallying point to evict the government of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu,” Sani said. He warned that such attempts could create serious problems for Nigeria, emphasizing the need for a united and peaceful country.
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Sani pointed out that no significant southern politician challenged Buhari’s government during his eight-year tenure. He urged northern leaders to think about the entire country rather than focusing solely on political power. “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,” he added.
He cautioned that if southern politicians decided to unite against northern interests, it could jeopardize the nation’s unity. “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,” Sani stated. He advised northern leaders to sacrifice their personal ambitions for the 2027 elections and focus on national unity.
Sani also highlighted the challenges facing northern Nigeria, including insecurity and poverty. He criticized past northern leaders for misusing their time in power, which failed to address these critical issues. “It’s a historical fact that people from the North have been in political power for a longer time. That power was an opportunity for them to develop the region, address the problems of insecurity, education, underdevelopment, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. But unfortunately, that power was misused,” Sani lamented.
He called for a concerted effort to bring development to the northern region, which lags behind in various development indices. “In the last eight years before the coming of this administration, in 2015, there was so much hope that the leadership would address these fundamental issues, but it was not,” he said. Sani urged that power should be used to benefit the masses, particularly in addressing poverty and insecurity in the North.
Sani also urged the Tinubu administration to implement restructuring, which he believes would address the problems of underdevelopment and allow the North to utilize its resources to tackle longstanding issues. “The region itself should key into the policies and programmes of this administration to address the problems that we face,” he suggested.
He highlighted the importance of supporting northern leaders in key security positions to address the region’s security challenges. “The security apparatus are headed to some extent by northerners. The National Security Adviser is from the North, the DG DSS is from the North, and there are also northerners in other significant positions. It’s an opportunity to give them all the necessary support to address these problems of insecurity because the North suffers more than any other region,” Sani explained.
Sani concluded by emphasizing the need for northern leaders to prioritize interventions that address the region’s problems rather than merely appointing northerners to office. “When people from the North have the opportunity to be in power, they should prioritize areas in which there should be intervention,” he said.