Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, on Saturday invoked the 1999 power-rotation agreement between Nigeria’s North and South as he urged the North-Central zone to back President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) grand rally in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital, Akume said northern and southern leaders had agreed in Kaduna at the dawn of the Fourth Republic that the presidency would rotate every eight years.
“We agreed in Kaduna in 1999 to ensure that power rotates between the North and the South — eight years in the South, eight years in the North,” the former Benue governor recalled. “Yesterday, our father (the late Muhammadu Buhari) made his sojourn in peace. He was on the throne for eight years. Today Asiwaju is expected to be on the throne for eight years.
“In 2031, northerners can float over 1,000 candidates. So anybody from the North who is running for President today is not sincere. Let’s reject him 100 per cent.”
The rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of party supporters from Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, saw Akume list Tinubu’s achievements — new universities, the NELFUND student loan scheme, increased oil production, higher foreign reserves and a booming capital market — as justification for a second term.
He dismissed opposition promises to restore the fuel subsidy as “policy flip-flop” aimed at deceiving the electorate.
Akume then formally moved a motion adopting Tinubu as the North-Central’s sole candidate for 2027. Nasarawa Governor Abdullahi Sule seconded the motion on behalf of the zone’s governors, citing improved oil output (from under one million to 1.8 million barrels per day), foreign reserves (from less than $20 billion to $40–50 billion) and capital-market capitalisation (from under ₦80 trillion to over ₦160 trillion).
First Lady Oluremi Tinubu told the gathering that the administration was transitioning “from reforms to prosperity.” She pointed to stabilising exchange rates, returning investor confidence, infrastructure gains and a recently concluded food-bank programme for pregnant women, nursing mothers and malnourished children.
APC National Chairman Prof. Nantawe Yilwatda highlighted federal road projects and political appointments in the North-Central and urged the zone to reciprocate on 16 January 2027.
Similar messages of solidarity echoed elsewhere. In Bauchi, the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement led by High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) donated 32 campaign vehicles and warned that electing any other southern candidate in 2027 would delay the North’s turn until after 2031.
In Imo State, thousands staged a “one-million-man march” through Owerri for Tinubu and Governor Hope Uzodimma. In Enugu, public and private school teachers held a separate endorsement rally for Tinubu and Governor Peter Mbah.
The North-Central rally closed with a clear message from Akume and the zone’s governors: the 1999 rotational compact must be respected, and Tinubu remains the only candidate the region will support in 2027.
