Over one thousand northern Islamic scholars gathered in Abuja on Thursday, 8 October 2026, to demand that President Bola Tinubu abandon his re-election bid for 2027. The clerics issued a direct communique after days of deliberations on the economy, the exodus of skilled professionals, and the endless slaughter across the northern hinterland. Pious patience in the north has run out.
The assembly blamed the presidency for pursuing harsh market reforms that crush ordinary households while offering no relief from rural massacres and highway kidnappings. They argued that the abolition of petrol subsidies, the floating of the domestic currency, electricity tariff hikes, and aggressive tax reviews have pushed millions of working families into destitution without improving public safety. Hunger and insecurity make terrible political companions.
The scholars specifically asked citizens across the country to reject the ruling party at the ballot box next year if the head of state refuses to stand aside. They urged religious preachers to speak plain truth to political authority, defend justice, and refuse to serve as hired instruments for partisan campaigns. Pulpits should not market broken promises.
The clerics also warned that poor pay, unsafe clinics, and high living costs continue to drive doctors, engineers, and teachers out of the country in record numbers. Ministers in Abuja repeatedly tell citizens to endure more economic sacrifice, yet skilled workers pack their bags because domestic hospitals lack basic diagnostic tools and rural schools remain shuttered under the threat of kidnapping gangs. Brain drain bleeds the nation white.
The intervention shatters the political consensus that carried the ruling party through the northern voting bloc during the last general election. The administration cannot brush aside a unified rebellion from traditional pulpits while food inflation stays near historic highs and armed bandits control whole farming districts in the North-West. Slogans cannot fix empty granaries.