In a dramatic media appearance that has set the political space buzzing, Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, has effectively issued a warning to her own party: drop Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2027, and the All Progressives Congress should forget about the North.

Speaking on the MIC ON podcast with journalist Seun Okinbaloye, Musawa did not mince words. She pushed back against growing speculation that the ruling party might swap its controversial Muslim-Muslim ticket for a more “balanced” Muslim-Christian pairing in the next election. For her, that idea is not just risky, it is politically suicidal.

Musawa framed the current Tinubu-Shettima arrangement as non-negotiable for northern voters. According to her, the religious and regional makeup of the ticket is the main reason it flies in the North, and any attempt to tamper with that formula would be seen as a direct affront to northern identity and interests.

She bluntly declared that if the APC dares to present a ticket without a Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri Muslim, the party will face a serious hurdle in the region. In her telling, northern voters are not just watching, they are counting who is on the ticket and where they come from.

Musawa painted a picture of a hyper-politicised North, where politics is woven into daily life and identity. Drawing from her Katsina roots, she claimed that even people in remote villages are plugged into national and global affairs, especially through Hausa-language radio, and that they take elections personally.

She described elections in the North as a kind of mass family ritual, with entire households turning out to vote because they see the ballot as their only real weapon in national decision-making. In her narrative, politics is not just about governance, it is about who is seen, who is counted and who is on the ticket.

On the wider political scene, Musawa confidently waved off the opposition as disorganised and divided. She acknowledged big names like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi but dismissed their camps as too fragmented and ego-driven to mount a serious, united challenge to the Tinubu-Shettima pairing.

She also took a swipe at former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai, downplaying his influence and insisting he does not have the political firepower to seriously damage President Tinubu’s support base in the North-West.

The message from Musawa’s media performance was unmistakable: the Muslim-Muslim ticket is not just a strategy, it is a red line. And anyone in the APC thinking of replacing Shettima in 2027 has been publicly put on notice.