A group, under the aegis of Arewa Think Tank has urged politicians from the Northern region to look away from aspiring for presidency in 2027 till 2031.
According to the group, there won’t be such need to make attempt at getting power should current President Bola Tinubu, delivers on his mandate.
The leader of the group Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, noted that only very few Northerners would enjoy the benefits of democracy if a fellow northerner becomes President in 2027.
According to a statement made available to journalists in Kaduna on Sunday, he disclosed that his fears emanated from the fact that a presidency under a Northerner would be of no benefit to the people of the region, citing the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari which he described as “wasteful years to Northern Nigeria.”
The statement partly read, “Arewa Think Tank’s position on this is that from experience and history, the last eight years that Buhari was in power, he did not change the fortunes of the North, the North did not benefit anything.
“I am sorry to say, each time a Northerner is at the helm of affairs, a few people around the President and in the corridors of power that are benefiting. Look at the eight years of Buhari, from Abuja to Kaduna, to Kano road, they have not been able to complete the roads in eight years.
“This was the highway that was done by former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in less than three years. We can’t see what Buhari did with all the money he borrowed.
“Our people are more improvised under his administration. It was during his tenure that Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world.
“Jonathan built Almajiri school during his regime. Buhari could not build one and he could not maintain the one that Jonathan built.
“So it was very few Northerners and their families that were around Buhari that benefitted from him. North as a region and as the people did not benefit.
“Now we have a Southern President in Tinubu. He gave North the Minister of education and Minister of State for education, the Minister of defence and the junior Minister in the defence, substantive Minister of agriculture and the junior Minister of agriculture, the Minister of budget and economic planning.”
Yakubu disclosed that in the eight years the region should think of grabbing political, noting that what the region needed at the moment is development.
“What North needs now is infrastructures, economic development, and qualitative education, not political power. Political power has not benefitted us. In the next 8 years we don’t think North will think of political power.
“North should go for agricultural and economic development. And give quality education to our people. All indices of the North were at the lower ebbs during the last day of Buhari.
“We are telling the North not to seek political power in 2027. This is our position. And anybody who is not happy with our position should go and develop his own position,” the statement added.
