The Presidency has defended Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement, insisting that the South must complete its eight-year tenure to preserve national unity, fairness and political stability.
Personal Assistant to the President on Radio and Broadcast in the Office of the Vice President, Hajya Rahma Abdulmajid, stated this in Kano on Sunday during the Grand Inauguration and Strategic Media Awards Ceremony of Matan Arewa 4 Tinubu Again (MATA).
According to her, Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement is not a sectional concession but a reciprocal agreement that has helped stabilise the Fourth Republic.
In an apparent reference to former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Abdulmajid argued that the North should not sacrifice Nigeria’s stability for the ambition of one individual.
She recalled that Abubakar attended the Kaduna meeting where the power rotation agreement was reached following the end of military rule.
Abdulmajid said the agreement emerged from efforts by political leaders to preserve national unity and address the tensions surrounding the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
She stated, “And present in that room was Atiku Abubakar himself, as later confirmed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume.
“Chief Sunday Awoniyi, the great Northern elder, stood up in 1998 and declared that the North should not field a candidate, in order to heal the wounds of June 12 and soothe the pain of the South.”
She also identified Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Dr Alex Ekwueme and Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo among those who helped shape the understanding.
Defending the arrangement, Abdulmajid said the agreement established an eight-year rotation of power between the North and South to promote fairness and ensure that no region felt excluded from national leadership.
She said, “In 1999, when the guns of military rule finally fell silent, this nation did not just switch governments—we made a sacred promise. Our founding patriots gathered in Kaduna with one urgent, defining question echo-chambered in their minds: How do we keep Nigeria one?
“And from that sacred deliberation came a compact: not a sectional concession, but a reciprocal agreement. This gentleman’s agreement decreed that power must rotate between North and South every eight years—an arrangement to guarantee fairness, to ensure stability, and to guarantee that no Nigerian ever feels like a stranger in his own country.”
Abdulmajid maintained that the arrangement had endured because successive political leaders honoured the understanding.
She cited former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight-year administration from 1999 to 2007 and the subsequent emergence of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007 as examples of the arrangement.
According to her, Yar’Adua’s death in 2010 cut short his tenure, leading to his successor, Goodluck Jonathan, from the South, completing the administration.
She noted that the North subsequently returned to power in 2015 through former President Muhammadu Buhari, who served two terms until 2023.
Abdulmajid said, “This is not fiction. This is our history. And how did it work? It worked because we honoured it. In 1999, we gave it to the South—Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, eight years, from 1999 to 2007. Then we gave it to the North: Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007. But death, a painful death, cut his tenure short in 2010.
“His vice, Goodluck Jonathan from the South, took over. The North felt cheated. The North said our turn was not complete, and that agitation was legitimate. What happened? In 2015, power returned to the North. The late former President Muhammadu Buhari, eight full years, 2015 to 2023! The sequence was restored! The principle survived,” she stated.
The presidential aide argued that the North had already benefited from the arrangement through Buhari’s eight-year presidency and should reciprocate by supporting the completion of the South’s tenure.
“My people, listen to me. The agreement is reciprocal; it is a two-way street. The North has already taken its full benefit after eight solid years under Buhari. You cannot eat your cake and still demand another man’s cake,” Abdulmajid said.
She also recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Southerner, supported Buhari’s emergence as president in 2015 when calls intensified for power to return to the North after Jonathan’s administration.
Abdulmajid said abandoning the rotation arrangement when it became inconvenient could undermine trust between the country’s political regions.
She said, “That same logic applies today. You cannot abandon a principle when it becomes inconvenient. If you do, you tell the world that the agreement was never a principle at all—merely a temporary tactic. And if we destroy trust today, what will we use to negotiate tomorrow? Let us be honest. Much of this noise against the South completing its term is not a matter of principle. It is personal ambition,” she queried.
Attributing opposition to the South completing its tenure to personal ambition, Abdulmajid criticised Atiku’s position on zoning, arguing that he had benefited from political arrangements based on rotation.
She said, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar tells us zoning is “self-defeating.” But he participated in and benefited from zoned arrangements in 2015 and 2019 when they favored his ambition! When rotation opened the door for him, it was acceptable. When it stands in his way, it becomes “intellectually dishonest.”
“Shall we sacrifice Nigeria’s stability for one man’s ambition? The North’s genuine interest is not served by that; the North’s interest is stable inclusion. The guarantee that power will return to you only lives if we honour the compact today.”
The Presidency appealed to the North to maintain the arrangement and support Tinubu’s re-election, describing the decision as essential to national unity, reciprocity and peaceful coexistence.
It said, “This is for our honour. This is for reciprocity. This is for the enduring stability and peaceful coexistence of our great nation. That is exactly what the re-election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term stands for. That is the future we build today,” it added.
Also speaking, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf supported Abdulmajid’s position, saying Nigeria’s unity depended on fairness and inclusivity.
Yusuf, who was represented by his Director-General of Media and Publicity, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, said reversing the existing rotational arrangement would portray the North negatively.
He urged the region to maintain the status quo by supporting Tinubu’s re-election.
In his remarks, former Jigawa State Governor and immediate past Minister of Defence, Mohammad Abubakar Badaru, said the Tinubu administration had delivered more benefits to the North than to any other part of the country.
Badaru listed completed road projects in the region, including the 88-kilometre Zuba-Jere section and the 81-kilometre Abuja-Kaduna section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, which he said were commissioned in October 2026.
Other projects he identified included the 77-kilometre Kaduna-Pambeguwa Road, the Yakasai-Badume-Damargu-Marken Zalli roads in Kano and the Jimeta Bridge in Yola.
On social infrastructure, Badaru cited completed health facilities, including Gadon Kaya Primary Health Centre in Kano, three Polio Emergency Centres in Katsina, Kano and Sokoto, a pharmacy laboratory at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, a 50-bed mental health centre at the University of Maiduguri and an infertility centre at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi.
He also listed ongoing upgrades at Bichi General Hospital and the deployment of 79 compressed natural gas ambulances.
Deji Elumoye
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