Former Kaduna lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has cautioned northern leaders against any plan to unseat President Bola Tinubu from office in the 2027 presidential elections, signalled that such a move could destroy the country’s unity.
Sani gave the warning in an interview with Arise Television on Thursday.
The former lawmaker urged northern leaders to key into the policies and programmes of the Tinubu administration that will benefit the northern part of Nigeria, instead of trying to gain more political power.
Senator Sani said: “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 to evict the government of Asiwaju Ahmed 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.
“Buhari was 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 from 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 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.
‘Focus on northern challenges’
Also, Sani emphasized the need for Northern leaders to address the problems faced in their region.
Recall that northern Nigeria has been grappling with insecurity and poverty, amongst other problems.
Shehu 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 regiion, 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, lags behind in industry, and in many aspects of development.
“It’s a serious concern because part of the problem we are facing in the North today 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.
“So, power has not been of use to Northern Nigeria for the period it has lasted.
“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 would address these fundamental issues, but it was not.
“So, power should be of use to the masses. In the North, power should address their poverty, and insecurity. It should address the issues of development, and not used to enrich an insignificant few who simply are parasitic on the economy of the country.”
Meanwhile, Shehu Sani said the Tinubu administration should implement restructuring, adding that it will be a systemic opportunity for Nigerians to address the problems of underdevelopment.
He added that it would enable 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.”
On how to solve the challenges of the North, Sani said, “I believe that what is needed is for the region itself to key into the policies and programmes of this administration, to see how those policies and programmes can be used to address the problems that we face.
“Luckily, 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 that are placed in one or two things.
“So, I think it’s an opportunity to give them all the necessary support at this time to address these problems of insecurity because the North suffers more than any other region.
“The North constitutes about 70% of Nigeria’s landmass and also makes up most of Nigeria’s population as it is more populated than the South.
“All that should have been is that when people from the North have the opportunity to be in power, they should prioritise areas in which there should be an intervention.
“It’s not simply appointing northerners to office but addressing problems which the North is facing,” Shehu Sani said.