By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Shehu Sani, a civil rights activist and social critic, has described the recent meeting of Northern politicians with former President Muhammadu Buhari as a strategic move to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Daily Trust had reported how the ex-president played host to former Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Sunday, less than 24 hours after ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar paid a similar visit to him at his residence in Daura, Katsina State.
Like Atiku, El-Rufai is not on the same page with the All Progressives Congress (APC) at his home state of Kaduna and at the federal level.
Reacting, Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, described the move as an effort to regroup Northern political forces for the next general election, predicting that it would ultimately fail.
In a post via Facebook on Monday, he criticized the attempt to revive Buhari’s political influence and mobilize support, cautioning against stirring Arewa sentiment without regard for the potential chaos it could cause.
He wrote: “The recent visits by some prominent Northern politicians to Daura appears to be the Usual Eid homage, but looking deeper and beyond the façade, 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, 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 Worst than he met it. It’s too early to forget. By the time he left power, poverty and insecurity was at its peak than at anytime 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. 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 had shown that they only enriched themselves, pillaged the economy of the country and pauperized 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 hydro power, they failed. 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.”
Daily Trust