Yari Urges Northerners to Allow Tinubu Complete Eight-Year Tenure

Sen. Abdul’Aziz Abubakar Yari, Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, has urged northerners to allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to complete his eight-year tenure in 2031 in the interest of national unity and respect for Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement.

Yari made the call while speaking with journalists after a closed-door meeting with Gov. Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State at the Government House on Saturday.

He said the North should respect the political understanding that brought power to the South in 2023, noting that former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, governed the country from 2015 to 2023.

According to him, Nigeria has been led by northerners for 47 of its 66 years since independence, stressing the need for all regions to support the existing political arrangement.

“Having said this, this country, Nigeria, from 2015 to 2023 was led by a northerner, and now from 2023 to 2026 it is led by a southerner,” he said.

Yari cautioned against calls to overturn the zoning arrangement on the basis of the North’s population, saying such a move could undermine the political understanding necessary for national stability.

He acknowledged that the Tinubu administration had not been perfect but argued that the economic and security challenges confronting the country were not peculiar to the current government.

The former Zamfara governor urged Nigerians to assess the administration’s economic performance by comparing key indicators, including foreign reserves and inflation, at the time Tinubu assumed office in 2023 with current figures.

He also noted that insecurity remained a challenge in several countries, including the United States, stressing that governments continued to make efforts to address security concerns.

Yari said his responsibility as APC Presidential Campaign Council Director-General extended beyond promoting Tinubu’s political ambition to encouraging national unity and understanding among Nigerians.

He expressed confidence that the presidency would return to the North after Tinubu completes his tenure in 2031, urging northerners to remain committed to the existing power rotation arrangement.

“I am calling on northerners to note that by the time Bola Ahmed Tinubu finishes in 2031, it will definitely come back to the North. This is how the arrangement is,” he said.