Yabagi Sani, Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), has expressed scepticism over Peter Obi’s recent promise to serve only a single four-year term if elected president in 2027, saying such an assurance would be hard for northerners to take at face value.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, Sani noted that none of the potential presidential hopefuls for 2027, including Obi, could be considered flawless. “There are no saints among them,” he remarked candidly.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in 2023, had told his supporters during an X Space conversation on Sunday that he would honour any agreement to limit his tenure to four years if he emerges victorious in the next election.
However, the IPAC chair said the dynamics of power become different when politicians get into office.
Sani said going by the principle of rotation of power, the northern region of Nigeria should produce the country’s president after an eight-year rule by the south.
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Already, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the South-West would complete a four-year ticket by May 2027 and is seeking re-election.
Sani said, “Yes, Mr Peter Obi can agree to say: ‘I am going to do one term’ but the northerners will tell you that after Bola Tinubu’s term, if he gets the (second) election, it should come to the north.
“But we are human beings. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Peter Obi is not a saint; he is not somebody who is from another planet. We have seen successive governments trying to see how they can turn the constitution around and give themselves a third term and things like that.
Sani explained that many people would find it hard to trust Peter Obi’s pledge to step down after a single term, questioning how he could realistically achieve such a promise given the deep-rooted sentiments, entrenched state structures, and the powerful influence of incumbency that often shape Nigerian politics.