Press Release
7/7/2025
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has cautioned leaders of the coalition out to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu in 2027 to remain focused on their goal.
Frank who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East, urged the coalition not to succumb to any ethnic blackmail masked by agitation for a Southern Presidency.
He warned that any attempt to exclude any region from participating in the contest to select a presidential candidate for the coalition would result in a stillbirth for the movement.
He also commended the leaders of the coalition for doing a great job so far and urged them not to be distracted by selfish agitation targeted at derailing their objective which is to galvanize opposition to win the 2027 presidential election.
Frank in a statement in Abuja, said Nigerians need a competent and compassionate president that would help restore the waning glory of the country and not one elected based on ethnic sentiments.
“Nigeria needs a president for all Nigerians, not president for northern or southern Nigeria.
We need a president that will help tackle and solve the nation’s myriad of challenges, both political, social and economic - like insecurity, unemployment, poverty, deteriorating health and education systems, among others.
He said: “For 2027, the president can come from anywhere, whether north or south. Let the Nigerian electorate vote their choice, whether from north, south, east or west.
“All I'm saying is that Nigerians need a better president, a people's president that will be elected based on popular mandate.
“If a Southern or Northern candidate is popular enough for Nigerians to vote for him across board, let him emerge as the president.
“Those saying that the South alone must produce presidential candidates for 2027 should perish the thought because their utterances are not only divisive but cast members of the coalition from the remaining five geopolitical zones as mere tools to attain the presidency.”
The Bayelsa-born political activist further declared that what should be of concern to the leaders of the coalition in the current dispensation
should not be about region but capacity and general acceptability across the country.
“What Nigerians want is a candidate that is competent and suited for the job.
If you say you are popular enough, what are you afraid of? Go for primaries and let there be free and fair primaries.
“If a Northern candidate wins, fine ans good. If a Southern candidate wins, fine and good. They should all support any candidate that emerges to win the presidential elections,” he said.
He noted that for those claiming that the South should be allowed to complete their remaining four-year-term from 2027, “how does a Southern President or a Northern President even benefit the south or the North. People from the regions of all the successive presidents either the South or North have always complained of neglect.
“ Southerners have complained against Jonathan and Obasanjo that they did not do anything. Now, we have a Southerner as president, they are still complaining but continue to insist for another term.Ditto, Northerners have complained about Buhari for not doing anything for them.
He added: “I am opposed to the argument that a Northern aspirant should not contest. If it is a Northern aspirant that will give Nigerians the type of president we are looking for in Nigeria, let that aspirant run for the 2027 presidential election.
“If it is a Southern aspirant that will give Nigerians progressive governance let that aspirant contest, emerge as candidate, and win the presidential election. The South should be careful and urgently refrain from agitating for this so-called Southern presidency.”
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