Okupe: Power can’t return to north in 2027

Doyin Okupe, a former presidential aide, says the presidency would not return to the north of Nigeria in 2027.

Speaking on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television, on Monday, Okupe recalled the precedents that culminated in an Olusegun Obasanjo presidency.

He said there was an “unwritten national consensus to elect south-western leaders” in 1999 to placate the region following the annulment of the 1993 election and death of MKO Abiola.

He identified sectionalism as the “most fundamental reason behind Nigeria’s stagnation”.

“Those who control the affairs of this nation, in terms of politics before now, were more interested in national interest than sectional interest,” he said.

“Our failure to evolve a national elite system is one of the most fundamental problems why Nigeria is stagnating because we all pull in different directions.

“For 2027, we politicians, and I say that authoritatively without any fear of contradiction or equivocation… in 2027, power cannot return to the north yet. That’s not how we do it.

“The truth is that there are stakeholders in this country and ways things have been managed since 1960.

“The country might have not made giant strides economically but in terms of politics, we have managed it in such a way that has kept the country together.

“When Obasanjo became president, there was an unwritten national consensus that a south-western person will be president. The two candidates for that election were Obasanjo and Olu Falae. So head or tail, south-west wins.

“We rotate between the north and the south. The north does eight years, at the end of which the south does eight years.

“I’m not saying that Bola Tinubu must be president in 2027, but it’s not going to be a northerner.”

The former spokesperson said past leaders failed to cultivate a younger elite class, adding that they managed the country’s affairs through political balancing for 25 years.

“Unfortunately, and I regret to say this, they’ve not been able to raise an elite class, a younger group, that can effectively take over from them along the same platforms on which we have grounded this polity to the way it is today,” Okupe said.