North should not use population to challenge power rotation —Yari

Abdulaziz Yari

By Hadiza Yusuf

The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdul Aziz Yari Abubakar, has urged northerners not to use the region’s population to challenge the informal power-rotation arrangement in the country.
He said the North should respect the political understanding that led to the emergence of President Bola Tinubu from the South in 2023 and allow him to complete his constitutionally permitted eight-year tenure.
Yari made the call while speaking to journalists at Kano Government House after a meeting with the state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf.
He said the North had occupied the presidency for several years before power shifted to the South, stressing the need for Nigerians to understand and respect the political arrangement.
He recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, governed the country from 2015 to 2023 before Tinubu emerged as president in 2023.
“From 2015 to 2023, this country was led by a northerner, and now from 2023 to 2026 it is led by a southerner,” Yari said.
He, therefore, appealed to northerners not to seek to overturn the zoning arrangement because of the region’s population.
“If we say we want to uproot the zoning arrangement because of our numbers, then my call for northerners is to understand how it works,” he said.
“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. So, this is how the arrangement is,” he said.
Yari said the political arrangement was important for national unity and should be respected by all parts of the country.
He also urged Nigerians to work together to protect the country, regardless of their political or regional differences.
The APC chieftain acknowledged that Tinubu’s administration was not perfect but said the challenges facing Nigeria could not all be blamed on the current government.