Nations are rarely undone by one dramatic event. More often, they erode slowly, through broken understandings, abandoned compacts, and the quiet decision by one section of the country that it no longer has a stake in the whole. Against this background, Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A) deserves all Nigerians’ attention.
A4A is a coalition of northern political leaders, led by former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau as chairman of its Board of Trustees and organised to mobilise for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election. From a southern traditional ruler’s vantage point, this is a necessary clarion call. A movement led by northern leaders, asking a northern constituency to back a southern president’s second term, speaks to the maturity of our politics. It rests on a number of competitors’ considerations:
- Political stability through power rotation. The constitution says nothing of rotation between North and South, yet this unwritten principle has been among the most consequential understandings in our democratic life. It serves as insurance against the fear that the presidency belongs permanently to one part of the country. When it is honoured, the losing side can accept the outcome. When it is broken, grievance replaces trust. A4A asks the North to honour the same compact that the South honoured when the roles were reversed. Stability depends as much on such commitments as on written law.
- Economic stabilisation through continuity of reforms. Painful reforms deliver their benefits only if they are sustained. Reversing course midway means bearing the cost of the first stage without the gains of the second. Investors, farmers, traders, and young entrepreneurs all plan around whether policy will hold. A second term offers the chance to consolidate what has been started rather than begin again. Economic confidence is built on predictability, and predictability is a political choice.
- National security through nipping regional and ethnic agitations in the bud. Agitation grows where people feel shut out. Every region that believes it has been excluded from power produces its own grievance, and every grievance becomes a recruiting tool for those who profit from division. A fair and understood rotation takes much of the fuel out of such agitation. Security is more than boots and equipment; it is the sense among citizens that the state belongs to them.
- National unity and cohesion through political inclusion. Rotation has done more than share offices. It has told every Nigerian child that the highest office is open to their region, and that their people will one day sit at the table. A northern-led movement supporting a southern president shows that this inclusion is working. Such cross-regional solidarity is worth building and protecting.
No government is flawless, and A4A does not claim otherwise. Democracy keeps its place for criticism, scrutiny, and the ballot. But when the questions before the nation are stability, continuity, security, and unity, the sensible answer is to hold the course and finish what has been started.
Traditional rulers are called to counsel for peace and cohesion. The leaders of A4A deserve commendation for putting national interest ahead of regional comfort. Nigerians, North and South, are invited to reaffirm the understandings that have held the country together.
HRH Engr. Lukman Akemokue is the Okuokpellagbe of Okpella.