AMID mounting political speculation and strategic alignments ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, Minister of Art, Culture, and Creative Economy, Barrister Hannatu Musawa, has said that power should remain in Southern Nigeria beyond 2027 in order to preserve national balance, equity, and unity.
Musawa, one of the youngest appointees in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet and a lawyer from Katsina State, made this assertion on Friday while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily monitored by News Point Nigeria.
She weighed in on the ongoing debate over zoning and the unwritten North-South power-sharing agreement that has helped guide Nigeria’s democratic transitions since 1999.
“It is understandable that after eight years of President Buhari, who is from the North, power needed to shift to the South. So now, you know how it is for the next two years, four years, it is going to be with the southern presidency,” Musawa said.
“And hopefully, power should continue for the next four years after that to remain in the South, just to create that sort of balance.”
While acknowledging the broader goal of building a Nigeria where leadership is based solely on merit, Musawa argued that the country is not yet at the political maturity required to abandon zoning arrangements altogether.
“Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to get over that, and candidates will only be judged based on their capacity and what they have to bring to the table,” she said.
“But since we are not there yet, zoning helps give all regions a sense of inclusion.”
Musawa added that ethnicity and regional sentiment still dominate Nigerian politics, and until those divisions are bridged, zoning remains a practical mechanism for peace and stability.
“Every part of Nigeria, north and south—needs to feel as though they are being carried along. We still struggle to see ourselves first as Nigerians before our ethnic or regional identity,” she said.
She also referenced her patriotic poem, “I Am a Nigerian”, which she wrote and produced as a cultural appeal to national unity, noting that it would be re-released on national media as part of her ministry’s creative campaigns.
Musawa’s position appears to contradict some voices, including popular actor-turned-politician Kenneth Okonkwo, who recently argued that the opposition coalition should field a northern presidential candidate in 2027 to increase its chances of defeating the incumbent.
Okonkwo, who is a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a coalition platform now attracting high-profile figures from both APC and PDP said he would personally support a northern candidate in 2027.
“My strategy this time is to support a northerner. If the North throws their weight behind someone like Atiku or Tambuwal, and they pick a southern running mate, that candidate stands a real chance,” he said on Politics Today earlier in the week.
But Musawa cautioned against dismantling the rotational agreement prematurely, warning that such a move could reignite political and ethnic tensions.
The issue of zoning was already contentious in the lead-up to the 2023 presidential election.
While the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) zoned its ticket to the South, eventually producing Bola Tinubu from Lagos, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) broke with tradition and nominated Atiku Abubakar, a northerner and former Vice President.
That decision split the PDP and led to the formation of the G-5, a group of five influential governors, led by Rivers State’s Nyesom Wike, who refused to campaign for Atiku. Wike, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under Tinubu’s administration, argued that the presidency should have returned to the South in 2023 after Buhari’s eight-year rule.
Wike and his camp maintain that Southern Nigeria deserves a full eight-year term under Tinubu or another southern president before any serious discussion of power shift to the North can occur.
Musawa’s comments come at a crucial time as Nigeria’s political elite begin maneuvering toward 2027.
Her statement, while seemingly objective, reflects the unofficial but powerful political logic that has helped sustain fragile peace among Nigeria’s multi-ethnic, multi-regional power blocs.
By advocating for continuity of power in the South, Musawa joins a growing list of political figures—even from the North, who believe that equity and continuity should trump raw political calculations in the next electoral cycle.
“Until we get to a point where merit alone decides leadership, zoning is our compromise for inclusion,” she concluded.