Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), says the criteria used to choose presidential candidates have changed since the general election in 2023, suggesting that his political choices in 2027 might differ from those of the most recent poll.
Lawal, who supported Labour Party candidate Peter Obi in 2023, stated on Channels Television’s Politics Today that the political environment has changed dramatically.
“They say a day in politics is long. Things have changed. The parameters we used to evaluate our candidate in 2023 are going to be different this time,” he said. Things have moved on, so we’ll see when we get there. We’ll see how it goes.”
Babachir Lawal claimed that Obi was the “real winner” of the 2023 presidential contest in spite of this.
He emphasized that the north needs to support a candidate in the 2027 election who is aware of its issues and dedicated to finding solutions.
He disclosed that in order to promote regional unity, the Nigerian People’s Consultative Political Forum (North), an alliance of northern politicians outside the government, was established.
“The idea is that we get together and bring unity to this north. There is disunity among us, and we analyse what this disunity means, what causes it, and how we can ameliorate it,” he said. 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.”
In order to negotiate power, Lawal continued, the group decided to unite under the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a single political party. He emphasized that, provided they understand and pledge to address the issues facing the north, they would support any candidate in 2027, “whether the person is a northerner or a southerner, even if he’s from heaven.”
He listed prominent individuals like Rotimi Amaechi, Peter Obi, and Atiku Abubakar as possible candidates at the national level, but added that more could still enter the race.
He came to the conclusion that partisanship and ethnic sentiment should not be taken into consideration when selecting Nigeria’s next leader.
