Kehinde Fajobi
Former Presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, has stated that the concept of a rotational presidency in Nigeria is firmly established, making it difficult to terminate the southern presidency in 2027.
In an interview with newsmen on Sunday in Lagos, Akande, who previously served as Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, dismissed political plots to shift power back to the North in 2027 as unfeasible.
“I think it is just a child’s play (terminating southern presidency in 2027). Nigeria has gone past that,” Akande asserted.
“The South is going to get its eight years. The North will get the next eight years. Politicians are just going to make noise. It is not going to be possible, really (to terminate southern term).”
Akande emphasised that rotational presidency has gained national consensus, asserting, “Rotational presidency has come to stay in Nigeria.
“There is a national consensus around the idea of a rotational presidency between the South and the North. Anybody trying to reverse that is just joking. It’s not going to work.”
In addition to discussing the future of the presidency, Akande critiqued ongoing merger talks among opposition political parties aimed at challenging the ruling APC in the 2027 elections.
He expressed doubt that these mergers would solve Nigeria’s underlying problems.
“All of these political mergers are not going to solve the problems of Nigeria,” he stated.
“In 2014, there was a merger that led to APC. There was a lot of expectations in this country. APC carried the national wave. Nine years after, where are we? We are nowhere different from where we were then because the core issues have been left unaddressed.”
He argued that even successful mergers would not change the country’s political landscape significantly, adding, “All of these mergers, even if they (proponents) succeed, what is going to happen is that they will just change the characters of people in the Government House.”
Akande urged Nigerians to unite and focus on addressing core national challenges.
“We must rather unite as Nigerians to deal with core issues,” he said, stressing the importance of discussions around national consensus on topics such as rule of law, poverty, corruption, local government autonomy, and restructuring.
“We need to agree that regardless of political parties, regardless of our ethnic differences, regardless of our political differences, all of us agree that this is the minimum that anybody who is running Nigeria or running the state government has to get,” he concluded.