Human rights activist and former Kaduna Central senator, Shehu Sani, has said Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election should be contested strictly among candidates from the South, arguing that the region is entitled to complete an eight-year run in the presidency before power returns to the North in 2031.
Sani, in a post on his X handle on Thursday, said the contest should effectively be narrowed to President Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi, Omoyele Sowore, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, Adewole Adebayo, Donald Duke and other Southern aspirants, describing this arrangement as equitable even though it has no basis in the constitution.
“The 2027 political contest should be between Tinubu, Peter Obi, Sowore, Makinde, Adebayo, Duke and other Southern candidates,” Sani said. “The South should complete its eight years. It’s not constitutional but it’s equitable.”
He said Nigerians should not ignore the country’s history and its political complexities by pretending the arrangement does not matter.
“We should not bury our heads in the sand and deny the realities and complexities of our history,” he said, adding that the North should in turn face no challenge to its claim on the presidency in 2031.
Sani also cautioned that abandoning the informal principle of power rotation now could set a precedent that comes back to affect the North later.
“Those who say there shouldn’t be respect for the principle of rotation of power in 2027 should know that it will not be respected in 2031,” he said.
The remarks add to Sani’s long running public position on zoning the presidency between Nigeria’s North and South, a stance he has taken through successive election cycles, including in the lead up to the 2023 polls when he argued that the North should concede power to the South West after President Muhammadu Buhari’s two terms.
They come as Nigeria’s political parties finalise their line ups for the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cleared a field that includes Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking re-election, Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) running with former Kano governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), Duke of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), alongside former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who hails from the North East.
The rotation principle referenced by Sani is an unwritten arrangement within Nigeria’s political establishment, rather than a constitutional requirement, under which the presidency is understood to alternate between northern and southern candidates.
Sani has previously argued that the practice exists to give every part of the country a sense of belonging in national leadership and to prevent any single region from dominating the presidency indefinitely.
