2027: North will back ex-President Jonathan to run for one term – Umar Sani

Umar Sani, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has declared that the Northern interest in 2027 is to back a candidate that will only run for term so as to power to return to the region after Southerners completed their eight years.

This is even as he said if opposition parties zone their presidential ticket to the South ahead of the 2027 elections, former President Goodluck Jonathan should be the preferred candidate.

Sani, who served as senior special assistant on media and publicity to former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, argued that Jonathan remains the most strategic option to enable power return to the North after a single term.

Speaking on Trust TV, Sani backed the idea of rotational presidency but stressed that it must be based on fairness and historical contribution of each region to the PDP.

“I am not against, you know, movement from the north to the south or from the south to the north,” he said.

“But what I’m interested in is the justice of the matter, the equity and justice of the matter.”

He questioned the party’s internal power-sharing formula, insisting the North has been marginalised since the PDP’s inception.

“Of the 16 years of PDP, how many years has the north actually performed there? And how many has the south performed? That is the question that should agitate our minds,” he said.

Sani rejected the idea of using President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure as a basis for excluding the North in the party’s future zoning arrangement.

“Buhari is not a member of our party. Most of our party people did not vote for him,” he said.

“So, we do not recognise Buhari’s rule as inclusive of that of the PDP. And as such, my take would have been to ensure that there is equity, fairness — that the ticket should be zoned to the north.”

But if the PDP insists on zoning the presidency to the South, Sani maintained that the South-South should get the slot, and Jonathan should fly the party’s flag.

“But be as it may, I would prefer that President Jonathan take the ticket,” he said.

“Not because I do not like Obi, but because that would ensure that the south would have completed their four years.”

On Peter Obi’s earlier declaration to run for only one term if elected president, Sani expressed doubts about such a commitment.

“Well, it’s just a political talk. It’s not about trusting him,” he said.

“The issue is, how are you sure that that thing will materialise?”

He added that Jonathan’s candidacy offers a legal certainty of a one-term presidency, unlike Obi who is only offering a verbal promise.

“This one (Jonathan) is compelled by the law. He does not need to make any promise. He has to go after four years,” he said.

“This one (Obi) is making a promise. A promise can be kept and may not be kept. But on this one, you are sure that it must be kept.”

Sani concluded that Jonathan is the most reliable option for the North if the PDP concedes the ticket to the South. However, it remains uncertain whether the former president would accept such a proposal.