Shehu Sani says northern contenders should wait until 2031
Former Kaduna Central senator Shehu Sani has argued that political parties should nominate southern candidates for Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election so the South can complete an eight-year cycle before the North seeks the presidency in 2031. He acknowledged that regional rotation is a political convention, not a constitutional requirement.
Former Kaduna Central senator Shehu Sani has urged political parties to field southern candidates in Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election, arguing that the North should wait until 2031 to seek the presidency again. Sani made the comments on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday while discussing the candidacy of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, a northerner and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress. He said an Atiku victory would end Nigeria’s informal rotational arrangement and could create resentment in the South.
Sani argued that allowing the South to complete an eight-year presidential cycle would make it easier for a northern candidate to take power in 2031. Sani stressed that he was not saying Atiku was legally barred from running. He acknowledged that the Constitution gives Atiku the right to contest, but said political fairness and the stability of the country should also be considered.
He said zoning and rotation were not constitutional requirements, but remained political arrangements intended to maintain a sense of balance between the regions. In his view, the North had occupied the presidency for eight years between 2015 and 2023, and the South should be allowed a comparable period. Sani rejected the argument that a region’s population or electoral strength should determine who controls the presidency.
He said the country was already managing significant political crises and should avoid creating further resentment, hostility and conflict. He proposed that southern figures including Peter Obi and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde contest the 2027 election, allowing the region to compete for a four-year term before the North had what he called an unchallengeable opportunity in 2031. The source identified President Bola Tinubu, Atiku, Obi and Makinde among the candidates listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the January 16, 2027 presidential election.
Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution does not provide for North-South rotation; the practice operates through party zoning and political negotiations.
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