Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has outlined a new political strategy for the North ahead of the 2027 presidential election, stressing that the region will only support a candidate who demonstrates a clear understanding of its challenges.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Lawal, a former supporter of Labour Party’s Peter Obi, hinted at a shift from the criteria used in 2023 to select a preferred presidential candidate.
“Things have changed. The parameters we used to evaluate our candidate in 2023 are going to be different this time,” he said, adding that political dynamics had evolved and his support for Obi was now uncertain.
Lawal, who still maintains that Obi was the “true winner” of the 2023 presidential election, said a new bloc of northern politicians, operating under the Nigerian People’s Consultative Political Forum (North), had been formed to promote unity and advance the region’s interests.
According to him, the forum—which comprises significant northern political figures not currently in government—has resolved that the North must vote as a bloc to achieve its political goals.
“We agreed that we must vote as a bloc. If we don’t vote as a bloc, we will not be able to achieve our goals,” he stated.
Lawal explained that the bloc’s support in 2027 will not be determined by ethnicity or partisan loyalty but by a candidate’s commitment to addressing the North’s problems. He disclosed that the group had chosen the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as its political platform, and at the national level, notable figures such as Rotimi Amaechi, Peter Obi, and Atiku Abubakar were among those considered influential.
He concluded that the choice of who should lead Nigeria in 2027 must go beyond ethnic and political sentiments.
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