2027: Atiku Finally Speaks on Presidential Ticket Zoning

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has expressed concerns regarding the potential zoning of the 2027 presidential ticket to the southern region.

He cautioned that such a decision could facilitate an easier path for President Bola Tinubu to secure re-election.

In a statement from his camp, Atiku emphasized that nominating another southern candidate to compete against an incumbent southern president is not a sound political strategy and lacks historical precedent in Nigeria’s democratic landscape.

He urged opposition parties to concentrate on forming a strong coalition capable of challenging the current administration, rather than making decisions based on emotional or symbolic reasoning.

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.