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President Bola Tinubu’s alleged offer to support a candidate from the Middle Belt for the 2031 presidency is pitting stakeholders against leaders of the zone, further alienating northern governors from the president’s re-election campaigns.
The Guardian learnt that concerns about the increasing acceptability of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) led the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership to convince the president to meet with prominent members of the Middle Belt zone to extract their support for his second term.
Dismissing the alleged promise, however, the NDC National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said the party believes that victory in the January 16, 2027 presidential election would come from Nigerians, and not from elite gang-ups.
“Moreover, it would be political suicide and crass ignorance for the so-called middle belt leaders to trust and believe APC and President Tinubu,” he said.
“We have come to the critical juncture in our national life, where only the people can determine who governs them. The elite’s selfish arrangements and the compromised arm of the judiciary will no longer determine the outcome of our elections.”
Also, a northern governor confided in The Guardian on the condition of anonymity that the leaders visited the president to affirm his promise of supporting a Christian successor from the zone in 2031.
Nevertheless, “we are not deceived by these schemes; the president rightly knows that the North-West is no longer sold to his presidency, so it is natural for him to seek new alliances, the governor said.
“I can tell you that this latest attempt to sell the idea of a Christian successor in 2031 is already increasing the opposition to his second term in the north.
“Many of my colleagues do not see why any of us should be passionate about the president’s second term. Atiku (Abubakar) has already warned us that we would be the first targets if Tinubu returns.”
Meanwhile, former Plateau State governor, Fidelis Tapgun, said the Middle Belt region would continue to play a moderating role in Nigerian politics, stressing that the region has the enviable position of holding the North and South together in a united and progressive union.
Peeved by the attempt to introduce divide and rule in the Middle Belt, a group, the Christian Youths of the North Central, Middle Belt Zones (CYNCMB), condemned the meeting, stressing that it was neither representative nor comprised of bona fide leaders from the region.
Speaking through Ishiaku Gyang, the group decried the leaders’ purported endorsement of Tinubu’s second term, noting that no other zone has suffered grave socio-economic destruction under the current dispensation than the Middle Belt.
According to Gyang, “there was no regional meeting or wide consultation at any time to discuss the agenda for the meeting with the president. The so-called leaders were acting in their individual capacities, because they lack the authority to speak for or commit the people of the region politically.
“The president is doing divide and rule; why are they endorsing Tinubu? Every part of the country has suffered the consequences of bad politics and poor governance. Coming to pit us against our Muslim brothers in the name of religion will not work.”
