By Kolawole Ojebisi
A former senator and human rights activist, Shehu Sani, has highlighted reasons why politicians of Northern extraction should work for, rather than strategizing to thwart, President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
Sani maintained that he is currently preoccupied with how to actualize Tinubu’s re-election bid, stressing that it will be illogical and irresponsible for any Northerner to be working for a politician from the region to take over the reins of power in 2027 after Buhari’s uninterrupted eight years in office.
The former lawmaker stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
“The re-election of Tinubu and Gov. Sani in 2027 is of more priority to me than my own personal political interest in the next general elections.
“We are seriously working for the Kaduna people and the entire northern Nigeria to embrace the re-election project of Tinubu for a number of reasons.
“Again, President Bola Tinubu had supported former President Muhammadu Buhari to win.
“So it is only rational that the support given to Buhari by Tinubu and the people of the South-West be reciprocated now,’ Sani said.
While making a case for Tinubu’s re-election ambition, Sani faulted the widespread grievance in the North that insecurity has escalated under Tinubu’s watch as the President deliberately keeps marginalizing the region.
The former legislator listed the Tinubu government’s purported projects executed in the North to justify his position.
He said, “One, in the area of infrastructure development, a lot of projects that the last administration refused to do are now being given attention.
“In the area of appointments, northerners were appointed into key ministries; the minister of defense and the minister of state for defence are from the north.
“Minister of Foreign Affairs, Health, Transportation, Agriculture and Minister of State for Agriculture are all from the north.
“The Chief of Defence Staff and the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Air Staff are all from the north and so what do we actually want?”
Sani added, “Our own was in power for eight years; he couldn’t address the insecurity problems in the north, couldn’t reactivate the Mambilla power project for eight years or complete Abuja-Kano road, Abuja-Lokoja, Abuja-Mina and Abuja-Keffi roads and so on,” he said.
“The dredging of River Niger was abandoned; the rail lines abandoned and even the Anchor Borrowers’ programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria that led to the loss of trillions of Naira was abandoned.
“If you look at all these, you know that this is not the time to call for the return of power to the north. Rather, it is the time for us to use those in power to achieve what we want so that in 2031, we can contest,”
