- Atiku Abubakar’s camp warned that a Southern opposition candidate could struggle to defeat President Bola Tinubu in 2027
- The statement argued that political strategy and coalition-building should guide opposition parties’ decisions
- The camp criticised selective arguments on zoning and called for a broader national coalition against the APC
The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has cautioned opposition parties against restricting the 2027 presidential ticket exclusively to candidates from Southern Nigeria, warning that such a move could hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
In a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, Atiku’s media aide, Olusola Sanni, argued that opposition parties must prioritise political strategy and electoral realities over sentiment in deciding their presidential candidate ahead of the next general election.
According to the statement, while the ruling All Progressives Congress may maintain its southern presidential arrangement around Tinubu, it would be politically risky for opposition parties to adopt the same approach without considering the broader electoral landscape.
Sanni stressed that successful political contests are built on coalition-building, strategic calculations and realistic assessments rather than emotional arguments or selective appeals to fairness.
“The first and most obvious question is this: how does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president?” the statement queried.
“Nigerian political history offers no precedent for such an outcome. No incumbent president has ever been defeated by an opposition challenger from the same geopolitical bloc. To insist otherwise is to enter the contest already defeated.”
The Atiku camp also challenged the moral justification often advanced in support of southern zoning, arguing that the South would have spent significantly more years in presidential power than the North by 2027.
According to the statement, the South would have occupied the presidency for approximately 18 years during Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, compared to about 10 years for the North. It argued that allowing the South to retain power beyond 2027 would further widen the perceived imbalance.
“It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity,” Sanni stated.
The former vice president’s camp further accused some political figures of inconsistency in the zoning debate, particularly individuals who supported the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 following the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
The statement argued that it was contradictory for such figures to now portray themselves as defenders of rotational justice after previously backing a Southern presidency despite expectations that power should return to the North at the time.
While acknowledging the South-East’s long-standing desire to produce a Nigerian president, the Atiku camp warned against treating the region’s aspiration as a temporary political arrangement designed to serve individual ambitions.
“The South-East deserves a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership, not symbolic tokenism or bespoke arrangements tailored to satisfy one individual’s ambition,” the statement added.