Tanko Yakasai, the elder statesman and founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum, says President Bola Tinubu remains the most favoured candidate to win the 2027 election. 

Speaking with NAN, Yakasai said there is currently no politician with a stronger backing than Tinubu.

“In Nigeria today, Bola Tinubu is the president; he has his ministers and governors who are backing him,” Yakasai said.

“Who else has all what it takes to move into the contest with the kind of stamina and strength to be more successful comparatively with Tinubu?”

Yakasai said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) controls most states and still enjoys support from governors in opposition parties.

“We should all wait and see if the picture will change drastically, otherwise for now, the odds are in his favour because I have not seen anything that will prevent him from winning the next election,” Yakasai said.

“He hasn’t done anything against the north, in my understanding, and the north alone cannot decide who becomes the president of the country.”

The elder statesman said there is no official consensus yet among the northern political class on 2027.

“I haven’t heard anybody making any proposition about the 2027 presidential election from Arewa Consultative Forum,” he said.

“What is tagged the Arewa Consultative Forum or Northern Elders Forum’s position is mere individual opinions, because all sections of the north have not taken a stand on this.”

He said Nigerians should wait until the region formally takes a position, adding that internal crises in opposition parties have made Tinubu’s path to re-election even easier.

Yakasai declined to assess Tinubu’s performance, but urged politicians to prioritise the interests of the public.

“Our politicians should see politics as a dynamic game, and what I will advise is for them to play the game on the basis of ideology and programmes,” he said.

“Let them envision the way they want the country to be and not targeting to be ministers, governors and president.

“After becoming all these and nothing is done in the interest of the country, we will not get better.

“They should eschew politics of ethnicity and religion because not making our country the focal point of our politics has held us down for so long.”

On Friday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said all political parties in Akwa Ibom have collapsed into a single entity.

He added that the movement will back the re-election bids of President Bola Tinubu; Umo Eno, governor of the state; and himself.