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 hand President Bola Ahmed Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
In a statement issued by his camp, Atiku argued that fielding another southern candidate against a sitting southern president lacks political strategy and has no historical precedent in Nigeria’s democratic history.
According to the statement, opposition parties should prioritise building a strong coalition capable of defeating the incumbent rather than making what it described as sentimental or symbolic political decisions.
“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.”
Atiku’s camp maintained that if opposition parties insist on zoning the presidency to the South, they risk weakening their chances of unseating Tinubu in the 2027 general election.
The statement further criticised supporters 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.
On the issue of fairness and power rotation, Atiku’s camp argued that by 2027, the South would have occupied the presidency for 18 years, compared to the North’s 10 years within the same democratic period.
The camp also accused some proponents of southern zoning of selective memory, referencing support for former President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2011 election despite calls at the time for power to return to the North.
