Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has dismissed any possibility of a northern candidate defeating President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general elections, insisting that both the North and South are strongly behind the President.
Ganduje made the declaration on Friday in Abuja while hosting a Forum of Northern Nigeria Youth Leaders who paid him a courtesy visit.
The former Kano State Governor said the idea that the North could gang up against Tinubu ahead of 2027 was a political miscalculation, stressing that an understanding had already been reached to cede the presidency to the South after the eight-year tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, those pushing a different narrative were ignoring political realities.
“Pertaining to the next election in 2027, those that are nursing or thinking otherwise, that the North will vote for another candidate other than Asiwaju, are making a big mistake.
“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. 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.”
Addressing the youth leaders, whose membership spans the 19 northern states, Ganduje said the region would not abandon Tinubu, citing what he described as the President’s visible achievements in less than four years in office.
“Asiwaju has only been there for less than four years now, and we have seen the measures, the reforms that he undertook. The reforms that he introduced in order to improve the socio-economic development of this country.
“All the candidates who contested with him in 2023 promised to remove fuel subsidy; even the previous government promised to remove the subsidy, but nobody was bold enough to do that job.
“But Asiwaju has succeeded in removing the subsidy, and now all the state Governors, irrespective of their political leaning, believe they are getting more and more funds for the development of their respective states.
“He did not say that he removed the subsidy because he wanted to improve the APC governors, but he did it for the nation. So, this President has undertaken measures that will improve the economy of this country.”
Ganduje also commended the forum for openly backing Tinubu’s re-election bid, describing their support as total and strategic.
“There’s no better commitment than this. You are contributing funds, you are also contributing your brain, you are contributing your energy, and you are contributing your time to ensure the re-election of Asiwaju. I have to thank you for this.”
Earlier, leader of the Forum of Northern Nigeria Youth Leaders, Murtala Gamji, reaffirmed the group’s loyalty to Tinubu, pledging sustained mobilisation across the region.
He claimed that “no President, nobody has supported us in the North like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
