A senior member of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin has debunked the notion of northern unity against President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections, declaring that the region had always “united against itself”.
Jibrin, a fourth term member of the House representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal constituency of Kano State, who spoke on Wednesday night in an interview on Channels Television Programme, Politics Today, monitored by Newsmata.com.ng, accused northern leaders of pull-him-down syndrome citing instances where they had plotted the downfall of some of their own who had occupied leadership positions in the country.
The chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Chairman House Committee on Housing and Habitat, who is a strong ally of President Bola Tinubu, predicted that nobody can defeat him in 2027, stating that he would be sitting somewhere laughing at those scheming to unseat him because he knows how disunited the north is.
According to him, “I still believe that the president will win in 2027. I don’t see that because now, when you say there is a gang-up, that the north is uniting, we should stop deceiving ourselves.
“The north has always united against itself, and it is time for us to tell ourselves the truth. Where’s the unity in the north? Where’s the unity? For goodness’ sake, we should search our conscience. What we’ve always done, if anybody rises up in the north, we gang up to bring the person down.
“This is what has been happening. The Tinubu some are saying they are going to contest against, or they are going to defeat him, must be seated somewhere and smiling because he can see how disunited we are”.
Chronicling northern leaders that were allegedly ganged up against, Jibrin said, “First, vice president Atiku Abubakar, part of the reasons that put him on collision with Obasanjo, it was some northerners that formed a strong block, ‘who are you to assume Northern leadership; you are not the leader in the north’, they brought him down.
“Namadi Sambo faced the same thing; Kashim Shettima, facing the same thing. Was Gowon not a military president; nine years? Was it southerners that took Gowon out of power? No, northerners.
“Shagari, democratically elected, who were those who did it? Northerners. Buhari, northerners. They said Buhari was too rigid, they brought Babangida; they said Babangida is too soft. It was northerners that put even far more pressure that got Babangida out of power. We keep doing this to ourselves.
“Abacha came in, brought some of them, made them minister. When he got tired, dropped them as ministers; they ganged up, fought him, got him out of power. Yar’Adua, what did he go through with northerners?
“…So, who is deceiving who? Look at a lot of northerners. Every day we are fighting ourselves on television and the rest.
“Is it that there are no leaders in the north? Traditional rulers, 19 Northern Governors. You will see very prominent northerners who are those that we should call our leaders, pouring mud at their selves in the public glare. Some northerner leaders will go behind, clap hand and the rest, play double game. And so, the whole of this thing has become so much toxic and at the expense of the majority of northerners.
“So, anybody who will come and sit here and say, oh, I’m talking for the north, I am speaking for the north, nobody is”.
Defending his opinion that the north is richer than the southern region of the country, Jibrin posited that “Our region is so blessed. I tell you this, believe me, and I’m ready to debate this with anybody. The north is richer than the southern part of Nigeria. The only thing is that we’ve not had a situation where we maximise our potentials.
“We have the population, we have the fertile land for agriculture, we have all the mineral resources you can ever think of.
“In the southern part of the country, you are talking about only oil and gas. There is not any mineral you think about that you do not have in the north”.
The federal lawmaker who expressed his desire to see his party leader, and former Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and President Tinubu work together, however suggested a resistance by some stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress, APC, to their coming into the party, especially those with governorship ambitions.
Jibrin said, “If you say Kwankwaso is moving into APC, or we are moving to APC, even within the APC in Kano, you have a lot of people that wouldn’t want him to come, perhaps those who want to be governor, or those who don’t want to be governor, etcetera”.