A former senator from Kaduna State, Shehu Sani, has described the recent meeting of northern politicians with former President Muhammadu Buhari as a strategic move to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The ex-president played host to former Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Sunday, less than 24 hours after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in company of former governors of Sokoto and Adamawa states, Senator Aminu Tambuwal and Jibrilla Bindow, paid a similar visit at his residence in Daura, Katsina State. A former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff also visited the ex-president on Monday.
Sani, a civil rights activist and social critic who represented Kaduna Central senatorial district in the 8th National Assembly, described the move as an effort to regroup northern political forces for the next general elections, predicting that it would ultimately fail.
In a post via Facebook on Monday, he criticised the attempt to revive Buhari's political influence and mobilise 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 appear to be the usual Eid homage, but looking deeper and beyond the facade, it is surreptitiously a new attempt to build a strong northern alliance using former President Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict the President Tinubu government in 2027.
"It is a regrouping of northern political forces for the next general elections; a project that will eventually kiss the dust. They want to resurrect Buhari's political charm and 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.
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"A southerner is in power just for one year. It is too early for the 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.
"Opposition to Tinubu from the point of view of policies, promises and programes of his administration is a democratic right of any Nigerian. But attempts to whip up northern sentiments to achieve their political ends are a dangerous political experiment and expedition at this material time."
A renowned political analyst, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, earlier shared a similar perspective on the visit in an interview with Daily Trust. He said Atiku's visit, along with the former governors and other political leaders, though portrayed as Eid homage, "may be a camouflage with the real motive being the 2027 presidential election."
