The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Senator AbdulAziz Yari, has said it is time for the North to repay President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for helping former President Muhammadu Buhari secure and complete his eight-year tenure in office.
Yari said Tinubu demonstrated political loyalty to the North by resisting pressure to challenge Buhari in the 2019 presidential election, insisting that it was the North’s turn to produce the President.
The former Zamfara State governor made the remarks on Monday when he led the leadership of the APC Presidential Campaign Council to the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, to seek the monarch’s royal blessing for the council’s nationwide assignment ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The development was contained in a statement by Gboyega Akosile, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Yari, according to the statement, recalled the political pressure mounted on Tinubu by some politicians to contest the 2019 presidential election against Buhari.
He said Tinubu rejected the pressure and instead supported Buhari’s re-election, thereby allowing the former President to complete his two terms between 2015 and 2023.
“For us in the North, I think it is time for us to pay Tinubu back for allowing the North complete its full term,” Yari said.
He said Tinubu had remained committed to Buhari throughout the 2019 election, adding that there was now no reason for people in the North not to reciprocate the gesture by supporting Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
Yari said: “Today, I don’t think there is an excuse for us from the Northern region not to support Tinubu to continue the good job he started and complete its tenure.
“The message from the Northern Nigeria where I came from is that, there is nothing to worry about. There are still people of high calibre and character who believe in justice and fairness. We are going to do our best to ensure that Tinubu’s journey continues till the end. He can count on us.”
The PCC director-general said the council was not asking Nigerians to support Tinubu’s re-election merely because of the principle of power rotation.
Rather, he said the President deserved another term based on what he described as his efforts to reset the economy and develop infrastructure despite inheriting a difficult situation.
Yari said Tinubu had fundamentally restructured the country and was putting Nigeria on the path of prosperity.
Receiving the PCC delegation before leading them to the palace, Sanwo-Olu described members of the campaign council as eminent administrators and experienced politicians, including former Senate presidents, governors, speakers and other senior political leaders.
The governor said the decision of the campaign council to commence its nationwide engagement with traditional rulers demonstrated the importance of the traditional institution in promoting peace, unity and national development.
At the palace, the Oba of Lagos expressed confidence that Tinubu would secure a second term in 2027, declaring that there would be no vacancy in Aso Rock.
“One important thing that I know is that, in the next four to five years, there is no vacancy in Aso Rock. By the time the head of this campaign team is coming back here on a visit, he will come to inform me that Tinubu’s second term has happened,” Akiolu said.
The monarch, however, urged politicians to make the 2027 campaign issue-based and called on Nigerians to embrace honesty, hard work, unity and sincerity of purpose.
Akiolu also advised Nigerians not to allow political differences to degenerate into personal enmity.
The delegation received by Sanwo-Olu included Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos APC Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, members of the Governance Advisory Council (GAC) and local government chairmen.
