Abdullahi Ganduje, immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed claims that northern Nigeria would oppose President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027, describing such views as a “big mistake”.
Ganduje spoke on Friday in Abuja while receiving a delegation of Northern Nigeria youth leaders drawn from the 19 northern states, who paid him a courtesy visit.
Addressing the group, the former Kano State governor expressed strong confidence in Tinubu’s prospects, insisting that the president remains the best option for the country beyond 2027.
“There is no better candidate to govern Nigeria beyond 2027 from the southern Nigeria than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
He warned critics against assuming that the North would back another candidate in the next presidential election. “Pertaining to the next election in 2027, those who are nursing or thinking otherwise that the north will vote another candidate other than Asiwaju are making a big mistake,” Ganduje added.
Ganduje described Tinubu as a uniquely qualified leader, noting that Nigeria is fortunate to have a president whose life has been rooted in political struggle and democratic activism.
“This is the first time Nigeria as a nation is lucky to have a politician as president; his constituency is politics, his upbringing is politics because he believes in the unity of this country,” he said.
Recalling Tinubu’s role in Nigeria’s democratic journey, Ganduje said, “In fact, he struggled; he was even in exile for democracy to survive in Nigeria. So, there is no better person to be elected in 2027 than Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
He also referenced a prior political understanding reached before the election of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, which, according to him, provided that power would rotate back to the South after eight years.
“Asiwaju has only been there for less than four years now, and we have seen the measures, the reforms that he undertook,” Ganduje said. “The reforms that he introduced in order to improve the social economic development of this country.”
