Senator Shehu Sani, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Kaduna Central senatorial seat, told Channels Television’s “Politics Today” on Friday that former Vice‑President Atiku Abubakar’s victory in the 2027 presidential election would mark the end of Nigeria’s informal “rotational presidency” arrangement.
If Atiku wins, it means that is the end of rotational presidency in Nigeria. And there is going to be hard and bitter feelings from the Southwestern part of Nigeria or Southern part of Nigeria. And I don’t think anyone would like to preside over a country with full of hate, animosity, and conflict.
Sani stressed that his comments should not be read as a call for Atiku to withdraw, noting that the former vice‑president “constitutionally has the right to run for any election.” He argued that the southern region should be allowed to complete its eight‑year tenure before power rotates back to the north in 2031, just as the north held the presidency from 2015 to 2023.
He urged all major parties to nominate southern candidates for the 2027 poll, saying, “All the parties. Like the ADC now, they’re supposed to field Amaechi. That is what’s supposed to be. The NDC should field Peter Obi, and the APM, field Makinde. Let the South struggle it out and see who wins, and for four years. And when the tenure is done by 2031, the North shall have its unchallengeable opportunity to produce leadership of the country.”
Sani added that while “rotational presidency” is not enshrined in the Nigerian constitution, it remains “expedient in the interest of justice, fairness, equity, and peace.”
The concept of a regional power‑sharing formula has long shaped Nigeria’s political landscape, with informal agreements rotating the presidency between the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian south since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
<small>Source: The Sun Nigeria — read the original story there.</small>
