The Presidency has defended Nigeria’s energy rotation association, insisting that the South should full its eight-year tenure to protect nationwide unity, equity and political stability.
Personal Assistant to the President on Radio and Broadcast within the Office of the Vice President, Hajya Rahma Abdulmajid, said this in Kano on Sunday in the course of the Grand Inauguration and Strategic Media Awards Ceremony of Matan Arewa 4 Tinubu Again (MATA).
According to her, Nigeria’s energy rotation association shouldn’t be a sectional concession however a reciprocal settlement that has helped stabilise the Fourth Republic.
In an obvious reference to former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Abdulmajid argued that the North shouldn’t sacrifice Nigeria’s stability for the ambition of 1 particular person.
She recalled that Abubakar attended the Kaduna assembly the place the facility rotation settlement was reached following the tip of army rule.
Abdulmajid stated the settlement emerged from efforts by political leaders to protect nationwide unity and handle the tensions surrounding the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
She said, “And current 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 additionally recognized Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Dr Alex Ekwueme and Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo amongst those that helped form the understanding.
Defending the association, Abdulmajid stated the settlement established an eight-year rotation of energy between the North and South to advertise equity and make sure that no area felt excluded from nationwide management.
She stated, “In 1999, when the weapons of army rule lastly fell silent, this nation didn’t simply change governments—we made a sacred promise. Our founding patriots gathered in Kaduna with one pressing, defining query echo-chambered of their minds: How will we maintain 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 association had endured as a result of successive political leaders honoured the understanding.
She cited former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight-year administration from 1999 to 2007 and the next emergence of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007 as examples of the association.
According to her, Yar’Adua’s demise in 2010 reduce brief his tenure, resulting in his successor, Goodluck Jonathan, from the South, finishing the administration.
She famous that the North subsequently returned to energy in 2015 via former President Muhammadu Buhari, who served two phrases till 2023.
Abdulmajid stated, “This shouldn’t be fiction. This is our historical past. And how did it work? It labored as a result of 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 demise, a painful demise, reduce his tenure brief 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 said.
The presidential aide argued that the North had already benefited from the association via Buhari’s eight-year presidency and will 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 stated.
She additionally recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Southerner, supported Buhari’s emergence as president in 2015 when calls intensified for energy to return to the North after Jonathan’s administration.
Abdulmajid stated abandoning the rotation association when it grew to become inconvenient may undermine belief between the nation’s political areas.
She stated, “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 finishing its tenure to private ambition, Abdulmajid criticised Atiku’s place on zoning, arguing that he had benefited from political preparations primarily based on rotation.
She stated, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar tells us zoning is “self-defeating.” But he participated in and benefited from zoned preparations in 2015 and 2019 after they favored his ambition! When rotation opened the door for him, it was acceptable. When it stands in his approach, it turns into “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 take care of the association and assist Tinubu’s re-election, describing the choice as important to nationwide unity, reciprocity and peaceable coexistence.
It stated, “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 talking, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf supported Abdulmajid’s place, saying Nigeria’s unity trusted equity and inclusivity.
Yusuf, who was represented by his Director-General of Media and Publicity, Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, stated reversing the present rotational association would painting the North negatively.
He urged the area to take care of the established order by supporting Tinubu’s re-election.
In his remarks, former Jigawa State Governor and speedy previous Minister of Defence, Mohammad Abubakar Badaru, stated the Tinubu administration had delivered extra advantages to the North than to some other a part of the nation.
Badaru listed accomplished street tasks within the area, together with the 88-kilometre Zuba-Jere part and the 81-kilometre Abuja-Kaduna part of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, which he stated had been commissioned in October 2026.
Other tasks he recognized 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 accomplished well being amenities, together with 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 psychological well being centre on the University of Maiduguri and an infertility centre at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi.
He additionally listed ongoing upgrades at Bichi General Hospital and the deployment of 79 compressed pure gasoline ambulances.
Deji Elumoye
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