The Presidency has warned against attempts to disrupt Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement, insisting that the North must respect the existing understanding that guarantees the South an eight-year presidential tenure.

It said abandoning the zoning principle to accommodate the ambition of any individual could undermine national unity, political stability and the mutual trust that has sustained the country’s democracy since 1999.

The position was conveyed by the Personal Assistant to the President on Radio and Broadcast in the Office of the Vice-President, Hajiya Rahma Abdulmajid, in a statement issued at the Grand Inauguration and Strategic Media Awards Ceremony of Matan Arewa 4 Tinubu Again (MATA) in Kano.

Although she did not directly name him in her initial remarks, Abdulmajid made a veiled reference to former Vice-President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, arguing that the North’s political interests would be better protected by respecting the rotational arrangement than by seeking an immediate return to power.

She described the North-South power-sharing understanding as a reciprocal political compact designed to promote fairness, inclusion and national stability.

According to her, the agreement emerged from discussions among political leaders during the 1998 transition from military rule and was instrumental in addressing the divisions caused by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

She recalled that prominent political figures, including Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Dr Alex Ekwueme and Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, participated in the discussions that shaped the arrangement.

Abdulmajid also claimed that Atiku attended the historic Kaduna meeting, saying the position had been corroborated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume.

“In 1999, when the guns of military rule finally fell silent, this nation did not just switch governments—we made a sacred promise.

“Our founding patriots gathered in Kaduna with one urgent, defining question echo-chambered in their minds: How do we keep Nigeria one?

“And from that sacred deliberation came a compact: not a sectional concession, but a reciprocal agreement,” she said.

Tracing Nigeria’s leadership transitions, Abdulmajid noted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo governed from 1999 to 2007 before power shifted to the North with the election of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

She said Yar’Adua’s death in 2010 interrupted the North’s tenure, leaving his Southern deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, to complete the administration before winning the 2011 presidential election.

According to her, the North’s demand for power to return to the region was realised in 2015 with the election of Muhammadu Buhari, who served two terms until 2023.

She argued that President Bola Tinubu’s emergence in 2023 restored the rotational sequence, making his re-election in 2027 consistent with the principle previously defended by Northern political leaders.

“The agreement is reciprocal; it is a two-way street. The North has already taken its full benefit after eight solid years under Buhari. You cannot eat your cake and still demand another man’s cake,” she declared.

Abdulmajid also recalled Tinubu’s role in mobilising support for Buhari’s election in 2015, arguing that the same commitment to political fairness should guide Northern leaders in supporting the incumbent President’s second-term ambition.

She accused Atiku of applying different standards to zoning depending on whether the arrangement favoured his presidential ambition.

“Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar tells us zoning is ‘self-defeating.’ But he participated in and benefited from zoned arrangements in 2015 and 2019 when they favoured his ambition!

“When rotation opened the door for him, it was acceptable. When it stands in his way, it becomes ‘intellectually dishonest,’” she said.

Questioning the justification for abandoning the arrangement, she added: “Shall we sacrifice Nigeria’s stability for one man’s ambition? The North’s genuine interest is not served by that; the North’s interest is stable inclusion.

“The guarantee that power will return to you only lives if we honour the compact today.”

She urged Northern voters to see Tinubu’s re-election as a matter of political honour and national stability rather than sectional competition.

“This is for our honour. This is for reciprocity. This is for the enduring stability and peaceful coexistence of our great nation.

“That is exactly what the re-election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term stands for,” she said.

Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf also warned that abandoning the existing power rotation arrangement could portray the North as unwilling to honour political agreements.

The governor, represented by his Director-General of Media and Publicity, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, said fairness, inclusivity and mutual respect remained essential to national unity.

He urged Northern political stakeholders to uphold the existing understanding by supporting Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

Similarly, former Jigawa State Governor and ex-Minister of Defence, Mohammad Badaru, endorsed the President’s second-term bid, arguing that the North had benefited significantly from infrastructure investments under the Tinubu administration.

Badaru claimed that the administration had delivered more development projects to the North than to any other region.

He cited the completed 88-kilometre Zuba-Jere and 81-kilometre Abuja-Kaduna sections of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, inaugurated in October 2026.

Other projects he listed included the 77-kilometre Kaduna-Pambeguwa road, the Yakasai-Badume-Damargu-Marken Zalli roads in Kano, and the Jimeta Bridge in Yola.

On healthcare, Badaru mentioned the completed Gadon Kaya Primary Healthcare Centre in Kano, three polio emergency centres in Katsina, Kano and Sokoto, and a pharmacy laboratory at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria.

He also listed the 50-bed mental health centre at the University of Maiduguri, an infertility centre at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, and ongoing improvements at Bichi General Hospital.

The former minister further cited the deployment of 79 Compressed Natural Gas-powered ambulances as part of the administration’s efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery.

He said the projects demonstrated the Federal Government’s commitment to Northern development and offered further justification for the region to support Tinubu’s re-election.