2027: Northern governors can’t win re-election on APC ticket — Babachir Lawal

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has warned that northern politicians, including incumbent governors seeking re-election, stand little chance of winning future polls on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) unless they defect to the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Speaking during an interview on Trust TV’s Sunday Politics, Lawal accused the APC-led administration of failing the North and said the party has lost the confidence of voters in the region.

“Which northern elected official will go to campaign on the platform of the APC this coming election? Nobody. Unless ab initio, you have no plan to win election. I can’t see anywhere,” Lawal declared.

When asked if this included governors seeking re-election, he was emphatic: “Unless they join the ADC, they will not win — simply because they belong to a destructive party. A party that woefully failed to perform.”

‘North abandoned by Tinubu government’

Lawal also backed recent criticisms by former Kano governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of marginalising northern Nigeria through the neglect of infrastructure projects.

“Every Nigerian that has anything to do with the North will know that no infrastructure work is going on at any level,” he said.

“No projects are going on — at least they are not visible to the eye. Maybe in their imagination, maybe in the spirit — but we don’t see it. We don’t see any construction work. We don’t see any infrastructure going on. No federal government project whatsoever.”

Lawal, who shares an engineering background with Kwankwaso, insisted that their technical expertise makes them better positioned to identify the absence of physical development.

“Kwankwaso knows what he’s talking about. And it doesn’t need to be Kwankwaso to say what he said. Every sensible, honest Nigerian will know that the North is being marginalised,” he said.

According to Lawal, many northerners believe the administration is deliberately undermining the region.

“I believe the sense we get as northerners is that if this government can destroy what they inherited, they’ll willingly do it. That’s the sense we have from this government,” he added.

Lawal’s remarks come amid mounting political tension between the North and the federal government. Kwankwaso recently accused the Tinubu administration of concentrating development projects in certain parts of the country at the expense of others.

However, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, dismissed the claims as “misleading and unfair to the president,” stressing that 52 percent of the roads under Tinubu’s key infrastructure plan are located in the North, including a significant stretch of the 1,000km Sokoto–Badagry superhighway.

Backing Umahi’s position, presidential media aide Sunday Dare said more than 40 major federal projects and programmes are either ongoing or have been maintained across northern states. He described the accusations of neglect as politically motivated rhetoric.

ADC in talks with northern politicians

Lawal insisted that, given the dissatisfaction with the APC, northern politicians will have no choice but to consider the ADC if they hope to survive politically in 2027. He revealed that discussions were already underway with some governors about possible defection.

“Most northern governors will have to join the ADC if they intend to contest the election,” he said, predicting a shift in the political landscape ahead of the next general elections.