Atiku camp rejects Southern zoning for 2027, says opposition risks handing Tinubu easy victory

The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar have cautioned opposition parties against restricting the 2027 presidential ticket to the South, arguing that such a move could weaken efforts to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In a statement released on Monday by Atiku’s media aide, Olusola Sanni, the former vice president’s camp described the growing calls for a southern opposition candidate as politically unwise and disconnected from Nigeria’s electoral history.

“The first and most obvious question is this: how does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president? 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 statement said.

The camp maintained that while the ruling All Progressives Congress may choose to retain power in the South through Tinubu’s possible re-election bid, opposition parties should instead focus on practical political calculations capable of producing victory at the polls.

“Defeating an incumbent president requires realism, not romanticism; strategy, not sentiment; honesty, not selective memory. The opposition must decide whether its goal is to make an emotional statement or to actually win power,” the statement warned.

Responding to arguments centred on fairness and power rotation, Atiku’s camp insisted that the South had already spent more years in power than the North since the return to democratic rule in 1999.

According to the statement, allowing the South to retain power beyond 2027 would further widen what it described as an existing imbalance in presidential representation.

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“It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity,” the statement said.

The statement also accused some political figures of inconsistency over the zoning principle, recalling that several politicians backed former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 despite expectations that power should remain in the North following the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

“It is intellectually dishonest for those who enthusiastically supported a Southern presidency under Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, despite the North’s legitimate expectation under the informal zoning arrangement, to now suddenly posture as custodians of rotational justice. Principles do not become sacred only when they align with personal ambition,” the statement said.

Although the Atiku camp acknowledged the Southeast’s desire to produce Nigeria’s president as legitimate, it argued that such aspirations should not be reduced to short-term political calculations designed around individual ambitions.

“The Southeast deserves a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership — not symbolic tokenism or bespoke arrangements tailored to satisfy one individual’s ambition,” it stated.

The statement concluded by urging opposition forces to concentrate on building a broad national coalition capable of challenging Tinubu effectively in 2027, warning that emotionally driven zoning debates could unintentionally strengthen the president’s chances of securing another term in office.

Atiku, who hails from Adamawa State, has remained a central figure in Nigeria’s opposition politics, having contested for the presidency multiple times since the return of democratic rule.

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