2027 polls: Denying the South second tenure could renew separatist agitations – Shehu Sani

…Urges North not to seek immediate return to Presidency after Buhari

…Says ‘the principle of power rotation makes it very clear’

A former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Sen. Shehu Sani, has warned that denying the South the opportunity to complete its turn in the presidency in 2027 could trigger renewed separatist agitations in the South-west, South-east and South-south.

He said respecting the principle of rotational presidency was critical to national unity and political stability, urging northern political leaders to allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to complete the South’s turn before seeking power in 2031.

He gave the advice in an interview with select journalists in Kaduna on Friday, arguing that disrupting the existing power-sharing arrangement could deepen political tensions and weaken confidence in the Nigerian project.

“The danger of disrupting this rotational idea is the fact that whatever you are doing to Tinubu for ethnic reasons, Tinubu must go,” Sani said.

He argued that the expectation of having one of their own run president had contributed to a decline in separatist agitations in parts of the South.

“Today, if you look at it, the agitation for Biafra has gone to the lowest point because they are hopeful that one of their own is contesting the presidency of this country,” he said.

The former lawmaker also cited the agitation for a Yoruba republic and a Niger Delta republic, arguing that the presence of leaders from those regions in the Presidency had helped to sustain hope in the Nigerian project.

Sani maintained that the North should not seek an immediate return to the Presidency after former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, spent eight years in office between 2015 and 2023.

He said, “The principle of rotation of power makes it clear that Buhari had been in power for eight years. It is only logical and rational that you have a southerner.”

He also questioned the political arguments being advanced in support of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition, recalling that Atiku had contested against several presidential candidates from different regions in previous elections.