Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State has weighed in on the debate over who should succeed President Bola Tinubu, saying the next leader of Nigeria ought to emerge from the South.
In an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday, March 3, Fintiri made his position clear, arguing that “no northerner has any business joining the race” for the country’s top job.
He maintained that allowing the South to produce the next president would be the right thing to do after the current cycle of leadership.
The governor’s remarks touch on the broader and often contentious issue of zoning — an unwritten political understanding that the presidency should rotate between Nigeria’s northern and southern regions.
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Fintiri, who recently left the Peoples’ Democratic Party to join the All Progressives Congress, also raised questions about the readiness of the opposition to compete in the next election cycle.
“But who is that person who has come out to say he wants to contest for the presidential election in the PDP? I have not seen — we have not seen any for now,” he said.
“So, where are we playing the opposition? If I move for the stability of this country, we still believe we should play our part to keep this country as one indivisible nation.”
He explained that as someone who played a prominent role within the PDP, he was not prepared to stake his political career on uncertainty.
According to him, his decision to switch parties was driven by a desire to contribute to national unity and to rally support behind President Tinubu ahead of future elections.