A Northern group, Arewa Think Tank (ATT), has said that Northern elites cannot stop President Bola Tinubu’s election for a second term bid in 2027.
According to the group, this is because the North does not need political power for now but infrastructural and educational development by a leader who cares for the region.
Fielding questions from Journalists, shortly after a prayer session for Tinubu’s 72nd birthday at Arewa House, Kaduna, the Convener of Arewa ATT, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, regretted that a Northerner was at the helms of affairs for eight years without impacting positively on the region.
Yakubu advised that Northerners must tell themselves the bitter truth, put regional sentiments aside, and support Tinubu’s second term in office in 2027 to ensure development in the zone.
According to him: “Why will North stop President Tinubu, how can North stop him in 2027 after somebody from the North has done eight years.
“For us to have peace in this country the North has no option, no alternative than to vote Tinubu for another second term so that he can do eight years as well. What North should be thinking now is infrastructural and educational development.
“Considering the enormity of challenges facing the North now, it does not need political power now. We must put our house in order and tell each other the bitter truth. Insecurity challenges which we hoped that former President Muhammadu Buhari would have dealt with, but got worsen. That means political power has no value for the North.
“However, it is all about democracy and politics when people begin to angling to run for the presidency, probably to beat Tinubu to it. Everybody has the right to contest for any political position in the country. They have the rights as enshrined in our constitution to freedom, to associate.
“They can go ahead and contest. For us at Arewa Think Tank, nobody can stop us from supporting the President. All we know he will be in power for eight years.
“We had a Northern President who stayed in power for eight years. So there is no reason why we will not support President Tinubu for eight years. So far he has done a lot of works infrastructures across the country.
”I was watching the minister of works, David Umahi saying that Abuja, Kaduna, Kano highways will be completed this year. This is very encouraging because the last administration in the last eight years could not fix it.
“And look at President Tinubu in less than one year in office, he is promising us that he will complete it. That is encouraging. So all we need to do is to continue to support and pray for him. Like I earlier said at the initial take off of Tinubu’s government, we in the Arewa Think Tank will give him one to one and half years before we start criticising him.
“We want to give him some benefits of the doubt, we want to give him a breathing space because of the enormity of the challenges he inherited. It won’t be fair in less than one year to start criticising him.
“If there is need, there is a channel to reach him. But for us to come out openly to criticise him we need up to one to one and half years. Until he failed to work on those areas we advised him, that is when we will start to criticise him. But for the time being we will support him and continue to pray for him.”
