Presidency tells North to let South finish eight-year term, cites 1999 pact
- A presidential aide said in Kano that the North must honour the power rotation deal and let the South complete its eight years.
- Hajya Rahma Abdulmajid said the 1999 Kaduna agreement is a two-way compact, not a concession to one region.
- Kano governor's representative and ex-minister Badaru backed the call, urging the North to re-elect Tinubu.
The Presidency has asked the North to allow the South to complete its full eight-year tenure, saying the unwritten power rotation deal is what has held Nigeria together since 1999.
The call was made in Kano on Sunday by Hajya Rahma Abdulmajid, Personal Assistant to the President on Radio and Broadcast in the Office of the Vice President. She spoke at the Grand Inauguration and Strategic Media Awards of Matan Arewa 4 Tinubu Again (MATA), a group pushing for President Bola Tinubu's re-election.
According to her, the arrangement is not a favour to one section of the country but a reciprocal agreement reached by the country's founders in Kaduna as military rule ended.
What the aide said
Abdulmajid traced the deal to 1998, when northern elder Chief Sunday Awoniyi argued the North should not field a candidate, to heal the wounds of June 12. She named others involved as Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Dr Alex Ekwueme and Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo.
She said the pact has been kept since: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo served eight years from 1999, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took over in 2007 until his death in 2010, Goodluck Jonathan finished that tenure, and Muhammadu Buhari then served eight full years from 2015 to 2023.
"The North has already taken its full benefit after eight solid years under Buhari," she said, adding that the region cannot "eat your cake and still demand another man's cake."
She did not name former Vice President Atiku Abubakar directly, but referred to a presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) who, she said, attended the Kaduna meeting and has called zoning "self-defeating." She argued that much of the opposition to the South finishing its term is about "personal ambition" rather than principle.
"Shall we sacrifice Nigeria's stability for one man's ambition?" she asked.
Support from Kano and a former minister
Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf backed the position, saying Nigeria's unity depends on fair play and inclusivity. He was represented by his Director-General of Media and Publicity, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, who said reversing the rotation would put the North in a poor light.
Former Jigawa governor and immediate past Minister of Defence, Mohammad Abubakar Badaru, said the Tinubu administration has done more for the North than any other region. He listed completed road projects including the 88km Zuba-Jere and 81km Abuja-Kaduna sections of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway, commissioned in October 2026, and the Jimeta Bridge in Yola.
He also cited health projects such as three polio emergency centres in Katsina, Kano and Sokoto, a pharmacy lab at ABUTH Zaria, a 50-bed mental health centre at UNIMAID and an infertility centre at ATBUTH Bauchi, plus 79 CNG ambulances deployed.
What happens next: The 2027 election calendar is the real test. The sources do not say whether the ADC or other parties have responded to Sunday's remarks.
