The vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, has confirmed that the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, signed a written agreement committing to serve only one four-year term if elected president in 2027 before power returns to the North.
Kwankwaso made the disclosure during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, saying the arrangement formed part of the party’s power-sharing agreement aimed at ensuring regional balance.
The former Kano State governor said he was confident Obi would honour the agreement.
“Oh yes, I personally believe him. I don’t think, based on what I now know about him, that he will change his mind when the time comes. We are all gentlemen,” he said.
Responding to a question on whether the agreement had been documented, Kwankwaso said both the party and the two candidates signed separate agreements.
According to him, “We have done one for the party, and we have done another one between the two of us.”
He explained that the agreement provides for Obi to serve a single four-year term from 2027 to 2031 before the presidency returns to the North.
“The agreement is what you said, that for four years, we will work together, team together as a group, party, friends and brothers so that after his term of four years (2027-2031), it comes back to the North. That is the general agreement,” he said.
Kwankwaso said his decision to accept the vice-presidential nomination was based on a shared understanding that the South should hold the presidency for only one term before power rotates to the North.
According to him, “Together we felt that the presidency should go to the South for four years; thereafter it will come back to the North. We believe that should be the consensus of everybody in this country so that we can move together as a family, both North and South.”
Asked whether he planned to contest the presidency in 2031, Kwankwaso said the party’s immediate priority was the 2027 election, although it also had longer-term political plans.
“We have a short-term plan which we are executing now and, of course, we also have our medium and long-term plans for the country, and that is what we are working on now,” he said.
Obi had in May declared that he would serve only one term if elected president, saying the decision was intended to promote political stability and strengthen national unity.
“I want to be a one-term president because of stability. I would not stay a day, with a gun to my head, longer than four years,” he said.
The NDC has repeatedly defended its power-sharing arrangement, describing the Obi–Kwankwaso ticket as a consensus aimed at balancing Nigeria’s regional interests ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
