The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Senator Abdulaziz Yari, has called on political stakeholders in northern Nigeria to support President Bola Tinubu’s bid for a second term in 2027, citing the president’s decision to back former President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.
Yari made the appeal on Monday in Lagos while leading members of the campaign council to the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu.
According to the former Zamfara State governor, Tinubu demonstrated political loyalty to the North in 2019 by declining pressure to seek the presidency while Buhari was pursuing a second term.
Yari recalled that some members of the APC had attempted to convince Tinubu to challenge Buhari during the 2019 presidential election. He said Tinubu instead maintained that the presidency should remain in the North until Buhari completed his tenure.
“I remember there was a struggle by some power-mongering bloc within the APC that tried to convince Tinubu to contest the presidential election in 2019. He resisted the pressure and said it was the turn of the north,” Yari said.
He added that Tinubu had pledged to remain behind Buhari as long as the former president sought the support of Nigerians for another term.
Yari argued that northern political leaders should now reciprocate that gesture by supporting Tinubu’s re-election.
“For us in the north, I think it is time for us to pay Tinubu back for allowing the north to complete its full term,” he said.
The senator representing Zamfara West assured Tinubu that political leaders in the region who believed in fairness and justice would work towards ensuring that his administration continued beyond 2027.
“The message from northern Nigeria, where I came from, is that there is nothing to worry about,” Yari said, adding that the president could “count on us.”
Yari also defended the Tinubu administration, arguing that the president had undertaken major restructuring of the country despite inheriting what he described as a difficult situation from previous administrations.
He stressed that the campaign council was not seeking another term for Tinubu solely because of the principle of power rotation, but because it believed Nigerians wanted the president to remain in office.
Earlier, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu received the PCC delegation before accompanying its members to the Oba’s palace.
Sanwo-Olu said the campaign council’s engagement with traditional rulers demonstrated the importance of traditional institutions in fostering peace, unity and national development.
