Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has cautioned opposition political actors against zoning the 2027 presidential ticket to the South, warning that such a move could ultimately hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
In a statement issued by his camp, Atiku argued that presenting another southern candidate against a sitting southern president lacks political strategy and has no historical precedent in Nigeria’s democratic experience.
According to the statement, opposition parties must focus on building a formidable coalition capable of defeating the incumbent rather than making what it described as sentimental or symbolic decisions.
This online medium reports that Atiku’s camp questioned the viability of a southern opposition candidate unseating a southern incumbent president.
“At the core of the question is: how does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president?” the statement read.
“Nigerian political history offers no precedent for such an outcome. To insist otherwise is to enter the contest already defeated.”
The statement suggested that if the opposition insists on zoning the presidency to the South, it may as well allow Tinubu seek another term without fielding a rival candidate from the same region.
According to Atiku’s camp, the strategy lacks the political strength and national appeal required to dislodge an incumbent president.
The former vice president’s camp also criticised proponents of southern zoning, describing the agitation as “intellectually dishonest” and disconnected from present political realities.
“Defeating an incumbent president requires realism, not romanticism; strategy, not sentiment; honesty, not selective memory,” the statement added.
It further urged opposition leaders to decide whether their priority was making symbolic political statements or genuinely winning power in 2027.
The statement stressed that opposition politics should be guided by electoral calculations and national coalition-building rather than emotional considerations.
On the issue of fairness and power rotation, Atiku’s camp argued that the South would have spent more years in power than the North by 2027.
According to the statement, the South would have occupied the presidency for 18 years, while the North would have held power for only 10 years within the same democratic period.
“It becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity,” the statement noted.
The camp also accused some advocates of southern zoning of selective memory, recalling that many of them supported former President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential bid in 2011 despite widespread expectations that power should return to the North at the time.
“It is intellectually dishonest for those who supported a Southern presidency in 2011 to now posture as custodians of rotational justice,” the statement said.
While acknowledging the Southeast’s legitimate ambition to produce Nigeria’s president, Atiku’s camp criticised what it termed “transactional political bargaining” and “symbolic tokenism.”
The statement warned against arrangements allegedly designed to satisfy individual political ambitions without establishing a credible and sustainable pathway for the region to attain power.
“Principles do not become sacred only when they align with personal ambition,” the statement concluded.
It urged opposition parties and stakeholders to focus on building a broad-based national alliance capable of defeating Tinubu at the polls instead of becoming entangled in divisive zoning debates ahead of the 2027 general election.
