Southern Nigeria should retain power in 2027 -Art minister.
Hannatu Musawa, the Minister of Art, Culture, and Creative Economy, feels that the presidency should remain in southern Nigeria for the next term to guarantee equity and balance.
Nigeria has an unofficial power-sharing agreement between the North and the South, with each region taking turns producing the President.
President Bola Tinubu, from the South-West area, succeeded former President Muhammadu Buhari, from the North-West. While there has been debate over where region the President should come from in the 2027 election, particularly with the recently formed alliance on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) platform, Musawa believes power should remain in southern Nigeria for the sake of justice.
“So, it’s reasonable that after eight years of President Buhari, who is from the North, power ought to migrate southward, right? So now you know how it is—for the next two or four years, it will be with the southern presidency, and hopefully, power will continue to be with the southern president for the following four years after that, just to create that type of balance,” the minister stated on Friday.
“Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to move past that, and candidates will be judged solely on their abilities and what they bring to the table.” However, because we have not yet reached that stage, the existing political situation requires that power remain in the country’s south for the next four to six years.
On Tuesday, actor-turned-politician Kenneth Okonkwo recommended the ADC to select a northerner as their presidential candidate in the 2027 election.
Okonkwo, a member of the opposition ADC, stated that President Tinubu would be guaranteed a re-election bid if the alliance platform, which includes key politicians, fielded a southern candidate.
“It must be a northerner that the entire north is eager to support. If the entire north is eager to back Atiku, why not? If the entire north is eager to support Tambuwal, why not? The guy must be qualified, and if he has presidential experience, that is an added advantage, and if he puts up anything from the South, that will help him get through,” he said.
Musawa, one of Tinubu’s youngest ministers and a northerner, said sustaining the power-sharing agreement was critical to the country’s stability and providing people a feeling of belonging.
“I think zoning is important only because we have not been able to get over the doldrums of ethnicity, and we’re not looking at ourselves as Nigeria, and I think you spoke about that poem, ‘I am a Nigerian’, that I wrote and produced a couple of months ago, which will be coming back onto the airways very soon,” the minister said while appearing on the morning show.
“So, now we have not gotten over that, and because we’ve not gotten over that, I think every part of Nigeria, or rather the different— the north and the south—have to feel as if they’re being carried along.”
In 2023, Nigeria’s major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will run former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the north.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) designated its ticket for the southern area and chose Tinubu as its candidate.
The PDP’s decision, however, did not sit well with some members of the party, particularly Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, who believed it was the southern region’s turn to produce a president.
Wike, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, backed Tinubu’s presidential campaign. He accused the PDP of violating its constitution by not zoning the presidency in the South. Before the 2027 election, the former governor insists that the southern area complete its eight-year term for the sake of equity.