Culture minister Musawa backs southern presidency ahead of 2027 elections

Hannatu Musawa, minister of art, culture and creative economy, says political power should remain in the south for another four years to ensure balance.

Musawa spoke on Friday during an interview on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme.

The minister said zoning is still relevant in Nigeria’s political landscape because the country has not transcended ethnic divisions.

“It is understandable that after eight years of President Buhari, who is from the North, power needed to shift down to the South,” Musawa said.

“So now, you know how it is — for the next two years, four years, it is going to be with the southern presidency, and hopefully, power should continue for the next four years after that to be with the southern presidency only to create that sort of balance.

“Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to get over that, and candidates will only be judged on their capacity and what they have to bring to the table.”

The minister added that both the north and the south must feel included in the Nigerian project.

“But since we are not there yet, for the benefit of this politics now, power should certainly, for the next four to six years, remain in the southern part of the country,” she added.

“I think zoning is important only because we have not been able to get over the doldrums of ethnicity, and we’re not looking at ourselves as Nigeria.

She also referenced a poem she wrote titled ‘I am a Nigerian’, which she said will soon return to the airwaves.

“And I think you spoke about that poem, ‘I am a Nigerian’ that I wrote and produced a couple of months ago, which will be coming back onto the airways very soon,” she said. 

“So, now we have not gotten over that, and because we’ve not gotten over that, I think every part of Nigeria, or rather the different — the north and the south — have to feel as if they’re being carried along.”

Musawa’s comments come amid renewed conversations about zoning and power rotation in Nigeria.

In recent months, opposition political heavyweights in the north and south have begun jostling for influence ahead of the 2027 general election.

While President Bola Tinubu, who assumed office in May 2023, is widely expected to seek re-election, there are rumblings within and outside his party about the future of power rotation between Nigeria’s regions.

The principle of zoning is an informal arrangement that rotates key political offices between the north and south. It is often seen as a tool to manage the country’s deep ethnic and regional divisions.