Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, says northern political leaders outside government have formed a new platform to unify their position ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with support to be given to any candidate who understands the region’s problems, regardless of origin.

Lawal disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, explaining that the approach differs from the criteria used in the 2023 elections.

He said the group, named the Nigerian People’s Consultative Political Forum (North), is made up of prominent northern politicians who are not currently in government.

“We had a group of people who started meeting with like minds, asking how we should approach this, what the issues are,” Lawal said. “We call this the Nigerian People’s Consultative Political Forum, North, in which almost every significant northern politician who is not in government attends our meetings.

“The idea is that we get together and bring unity to this north. There is disunity among us, and we analyse what this disunity means, what causes it, and how we can ameliorate it.”

According to him, the forum has agreed that the north must vote as a bloc in 2027, and the eventual choice of candidate will depend on their grasp of the region’s challenges.

“We must vote as a bloc. If we don’t vote as a bloc, we will not be able to achieve our goals. That’s our understanding as a way forward. Now, whoever eventually emerges, we will only support somebody who understands the problems facing the north and will present them to him, whether the person is a northerner or a southerner, even if he’s from heaven,” he said.

Lawal, who supported Labour Party’s Peter Obi in 2023, suggested he may not back him again, stressing that the “parameters used to evaluate our candidate in 2023” are going to be different this time.

He reiterated his belief that Obi was the “true winner” of the 2023 election but maintained that the new political strategy is not tied to any one individual. “Eventually, we just decided that we can only pursue this if we are in one solid political party. And we all agree this solid political party can only be the ADC,” he added.

At the national level, Lawal named former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, Peter Obi, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as among those still in active contention, adding that others are yet to declare their interest.