Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has cautioned opposition parties against zoning their 2027 presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria, warning that such a decision could weaken efforts to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the next general election.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, Atiku described the growing agitation for a Southern presidential candidate within opposition circles as “self-defeating and intellectually dishonest.”
According to him, electoral victory should be driven by strategy and political realities rather than sentiments or regional emotions.
“The first and most obvious question is this: how does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president?” the statement queried.
The former presidential candidate argued that Nigeria’s political history shows that no incumbent president has ever been defeated by an opposition challenger from the same region, insisting that opposition parties must focus on “hard electoral arithmetic” instead of “emotional talking points.”
Atiku’s camp further maintained that by 2027, Southern Nigeria would have occupied the presidency for nearly 18 years in the Fourth Republic, while the North would have spent about 10 years in power.
The statement said this reality makes it difficult to justify another Southern presidency “under the guise of equity.”
The former vice president also accused some political actors of double standards, recalling that many of those now defending zoning had supported the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 following the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
He argued that the current zoning debate should not be treated as an untouchable political principle.
On the agitation for a president of Southeast extraction, Atiku said the region deserves “a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership,” rather than what he described as “symbolic tokenism.”
The remarks come amid increasing debates within opposition parties over zoning arrangements and coalition talks ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
