Doyin Okupe, former Presidential Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, has emphatically stated that the presidency will not return to the North in 2027.
During an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, recalling historical precedents, Okupe noted that when Olusegun Obasanjo became president, there was an unwritten consensus to elect a Southwestern leader to address regional grievances following the presumed election victory and death of MKO Abiola.
Okupe stated, “Those who control the affairs of this nation, in terms of politics before now, were more interested in national interest than sectional interest.
“Our failure to evolve a national elite system is one of the most fundamental problems why Nigeria is stagnating because we all pull in different directions.”
He stated, “For 2027, we politicians, and I say that authoritatively without any fear of contradiction or equivocation… in 2027, power cannot return to the North yet. That’s not how we do it.”
“We rotate between the North and the South. The North does eight years, at the end of which the South does eight years,” he explained. “I’m not saying that Bola Tinubu must be president in 2027, but it’s not going to be a northerner.”
He lamented the inability of past leaders, including Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and TY Danjuma, to nurture a younger elite class, stating, “These are some of the people who have managed the affairs of this country in terms of political balancing for the last 25 years.
“Unfortunately, and I regret to say this, they’ve not been able to raise an elite class, a younger group, that can effectively take over from them along the same platforms on which we have grounded this polity that it is the way it is today.”
He warned that any attempt by the North to back a Southern representative against Tinubu could result in the representative serving an eight-year term, creating a dilemma for the North. Referring to the Tinubu administration, Okupe commended the president’s serious reforms aimed at addressing the country’s socio-economic challenges, which he described as dire when Tinubu assumed office.
Furthermore, he criticised the previous administration under President Buhari for excessive money printing, leading to an economic crisis akin to Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation. He credited Tinubu with averting a similar fate for Nigeria through his reforms.
“Today, Bola Tinubu has made poverty not to be an issue or an excuse not to be educated. There’s a loan fund which he promised in his agenda that he’s going to do that is now operative,” Okupe added.
He concluded by noting that “there is nowhere any reforms take place that there are no temporary pains, and if there are no pains, there are no gains.”
Meanwhile, efforts to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and return power to Northern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections have ignited tensions among Northern groups. Following the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) National Executive Committee meeting, where Chairman Mamman Mike Osuman expressed support for Northern candidates, the League of Northern Democrats (LND), led by former Kano State Governor Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, visited the ACF headquarters. The LND sought alliances with key Northern organisations, including the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), to forge a unified front for reclaiming power in the North.
Frances Ibiefo
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