Serving Speakers and their predecessors from the Northwest zone of Nigeria have declared their support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Their endorsement is coming weeks after their colleagues in the Southwest also stamped Tinubu for the election.
A statement issued by Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of the Lagos Assembly, reveals that the speakers pledged their support at a meeting held at Kano on Friday.
The lawmakers said Tinubu remained the right person for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Some of them argued that with the challenges currently being faced by the country, Nigeria deserves a leader who is detribalised and has shown over time that he has the capacity to lead the country.
Praising Asiwaju Tinubu for being able to unite the southwest under one umbrella, they noted that his leadership qualities are most scarce in some other zones of the country declaring this as an advantage for the entire country.
According to the statement, a former speaker from Kano, Abdullahi Yanshana, reportedly said “95 per cent of the votes from Kano in 2023 will be in favour of the national leader of the APC.”
Mr Tinubu, a former senator and two-term governor of Lagos State, has not officially declared interest to run for office in the next election. But recent moves by forces loyal to him show it’s a matter of time before he makes his intention known.
The APC leader was in Kaduna on Saturday where he chaired the Arewa House 11th annual lecture.
Over the past few months, several ‘youth’ groups have clamoured for Mr Tinubu’s candidacy in 2023.