2027: Yari Urges Northerners to Support Tinubu

Former Zamfara State Governor and Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Abdul’aziz Yari, has cautioned northerners against insisting that the presidency must return to the region in the 2027 general elections.

Yari spoke on Sunday while addressing a gathering of prominent Islamic scholars at the residence of the late Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi in Bauchi State.

The engagement was part of the PCC delegation’s ongoing consultations with critical stakeholders ahead of the 2027 elections.

The delegation had earlier visited Jos, Plateau State, where it paid a condolence visit to Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir following the death of the National Treasurer of the Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa’ikamatis Sunnah (JIBWIS).

Speaking in Bauchi, Yari said demanding that Nigeria’s leadership must continually come from the North could undermine national unity and deepen regional divisions.

He said, “If we say that nobody is going to rule Nigeria except somebody from the North, we have divided ourselves.

“It is pertinent that when we are together as a country and united, leaders will come from different parts of the country.

“In Nigeria, we have started figuring out how to maintain our unity and equality, which is leadership coming from different parts of the country.

“When a President is elected from the North, another President should be elected from the South. That is the solution to our diversity.”

The former governor urged Nigerians to support a leadership arrangement that promotes unity, inclusiveness and equitable representation by allowing different regions to produce the President.

Also speaking, the APC governorship candidate in Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, told the Islamic scholars that President Bola Tinubu had great respect for the late Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi.

Abubakar recalled that Tinubu had travelled to Bauchi to sympathise with the late scholar’s followers following his death.

He urged Bauchi residents to support Tinubu’s re-election bid and vote for the APC at all levels in the forthcoming general elections.

Yari also described the late Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi as one of the state’s respected voices of wisdom and guidance.