Yari urges North to back Tinubu 2027 bid citing 2019 reciprocity

Senator Abdulaziz Yari, Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, has called on northern Nigerians to support President Bola Tinubu's reelection bid in 2027, arguing that the North owes a debt of reciprocity for Tinubu's past political support. Yari made the appeal on Monday during a visit by the campaign council delegation to the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu. He stated that Tinubu had resisted pressure to contest the 2019 presidential election, insisting it was the North's turn to lead and supporting former President Muhammadu Buhari's second-term bid. "I remember there was a struggle by some powermongering bloc within the APC that tried to convince Tinubu to contest the presidential election in 2019. He resisted the pressure and said it was the turn of the north," Yari said. "Tinubu said as long as Buhari can come out and ask people to vote for him, he would be with Buhari till the end. And that was what Tinubu truly did." Yari, a former Zamfara governor and current senator representing Zamfara West, argued this history creates a clear obligation.