By Kingston Magare
The recent randevous visits by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to some prominent Northern political elites have been described as a plot to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Atiku who was the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election won by President Tinubu, had during the sallah break paid homage to former head of states Ibrahim Babaginda, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari.
Writing on his Facebook page on Monday Shehu Sanni a former Senator from Kaduna Central accused Atiku of trying to forge a united northern force to prevent Tinubu from winning another four years tenure in 2027.
Shehu Sanni wrote: “The recent visits by some prominent Northern politicians to Daura appears to be the usual Eid homage, but looking deeper and beyond the facade, it’s surreptitiously a new attempt to build a strong northern alliance using ex-President Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict President Tinubu’s Government in 2027. It’s a regrouping of Northern political forces for the next general election. A project that will eventually kiss the dust.
“They want to resurrect Buhari’s political charm, and fanaticism and mobilise the gullible to another hollow and bewildering end. They want to stock up and light up the Arewa sentiment without considering the inferno it would eventually generate
“The same Buhari that led Nigeria for eight years and left the North worse than he met it. It’s too early to forget. By the time he left power, poverty and insecurity were at their peak than at any time in Nigeria’s history. They had power and wasted it; what do they want to do with it again?
“A Southerner is in power just for one year. It’s too early for the desperate and power-hungry northern elite to start plotting. The South never did that to Buhari. Their intended action has the capacity of ruining the democratic process and wrecking the fragile unity of the country when the South is awakened to this reality.
“Their obsession with power is condemnable. Opposition to Tinubu from the point of policies, promises and programs of his administration is a democratic right of any Nigerian. People have the right to speak and criticize the Government. But attempts to whip up Northern sentiments to achieve their political ends is a dangerous political experiment and expedition at this material time.”
He accused the northern political elite of being power hungry, yet they cannot provide good leadership.
“No serious southerner challenged Buhari for eight years; these power-drunk Northern politicians are dragging the region to a new political journey through a land mine.
“Buhari’s reign ensured nepotistical placement, installation and dominance of Northerners at strategic positions of authority and power for eight years. Results have shown that they only enriched themselves, pillaged the economy of the country and pauperised our country.
“The Daura homage of the disgruntled and the obsessed will fail. Our people in the North should reject these faces and their plots. They have nothing to offer. From the abandoned Baro Port, Ajaokuta, Lake Chad basin refiling and Mambilla hydropower, they faile
“They came to power when the North was in the hands of terrorists and left it in the joint hands of terrorists and Bandits. The Northern Talakawa should reject their antics.”