Tinubu’s Northern Trap | Council on Foreign Relations

The first is persistent northern lament that key appointments in Tinubu’s administration have been skewed in favor of the president’s Yoruba ethnic group; an allegation that, if valid, would mean not just that Tinubu has been acting in breach of the constitutional requirement for regional balance in appointments, but more importantly that he has jettisoned a northern region whose political bigwigs helped him get over the line when his chances of securing the APC presidential ticket were in jeopardy in late 2022. While Tinubu can take comfort in knowing that accusations of ethnic favoritism are par for the course in Nigerian politics, he can ill afford losing ground in a region where, in total, he secured more votes than his Yoruba political base. Tinubu will, rightly, point to Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, one of the most powerful people in the current administration, as proof that he has done right by his northern (Fulani) allies, but it does not bode well for him that northern disgruntlement about marginalization persists notwithstanding.