A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kassim Afegbua, has said the North should allow the Southern part of Nigeria to complete its eight years in power.
Speaking with Arise TV, Afegbua faulted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for failing to adhere to its constitutional provisions on power rotation.
Afegbua accused the PDP of abandoning its principles during the 2023 elections by fielding Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate.
According to Afegbua: “For me, I don’t think the North should bother to discuss 2027 for power to be ceded to them.
“If you recall, one of the reasons I canvassed for a Southern presidency in 2023 was because Alhaji Atiku Abubakar decided to change the political narrative of the PDP.
“Article 7 of its own constitution, Section C, stipulates that there should be a rotation of power.
“In an effort to railroad the polity into presenting an Atiku, seeing him as someone who can defeat the APC, they decided to package him, and since then, the center cannot hold up to now.
“So, when you have that kind of scenario, where a party is not able to follow the normative order of its own constitution by virtue of its own provisions, then you have this kind of scenario of trying to push the political algorithms.
“The South must be made to complete its eight years, then power would now go to the North.”
His remark comes amid claims by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, that the North should forget contesting against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Akume said former PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and other Northern politicians should forget running for the presidency in 2027.
However, Atiku, through his media aide, Paul Ibe, dismissed Akume’s remark, noting that Tinubu has not done enough for Nigerians to reelect him in 2027.