Opposition Parties Must Rethink Zoning 2027' Presidency To South East– Atiku Abubakar
Former Vice President and Waziri of Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has urged opposition parties not to fall to the temptation of zoning their 2027 presidential tickets to the South ahead of their primaries.
Former Vice President and Waziri of Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has urged opposition parties not to fall to the temptation of zoning their 2027 presidential tickets to the South ahead of their primaries.
The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, and other opposition parties recently zoned presidential ticket to the Southern part of the country.
Atiku spoke in a statement by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, describing such decisions as defeatist.
Atiku spoke in a statement by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, describing such decisions as defeatist.
He further noted that it was not only self-defeating but intellectually dishonest, the narrative that insists the 2027 presidential ticket must be zoned exclusively to the Southeast, noting that such arrangements amount to "transactional political bargaining.."
According to him, while zoning by the All Progressives Congress, APC, could understandably be to retain the presidency around the incumbent President Bola Tinubu, it would amount to political naivety for the opposition to adopt the same logic without a sober assessment of electoral realities.
He further stressed that politics must be driven by strategy, coalition-building, and hard electoral arithmetic—not emotional talking points or selective moral arguments.
According to him, while zoning by the All Progressives Congress, APC, could understandably be to retain the presidency around the incumbent President Bola Tinubu, it would amount to political naivety for the opposition to adopt the same logic without a sober assessment of electoral realities.
He further stressed that politics must be driven by strategy, coalition-building, and hard electoral arithmetic—not emotional talking points or selective moral arguments.
His words, “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.
“By 2027, the South would have held presidential power for approximately 18 years in the Fourth Republic, compared to about 10 years for the North. If the South retains power for another four years, that disparity widens even further.
“It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity..”
“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.
“By 2027, the South would have held presidential power for approximately 18 years in the Fourth Republic, compared to about 10 years for the North. If the South retains power for another four years, that disparity widens even further.
“It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity..”
“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 Southeast deserves a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership—not symbolic tokenism or bespoke arrangements tailored to satisfy one individual’s ambition.”
Atiku then accused some political actors of selective memory and opportunism, particularly those who abandoned the zoning principle in 2011 following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, only to now present it as a sacred political doctrine.
Affirming that the Southeast’s aspiration to produce a president remained legitimate and deserving of serious national engagement, he warned against reducing that aspiration to what it called “transactional political bargaining.”
Atiku then urged the opposition to focus on building a credible national coalition capable of defeating the incumbent rather than embracing narratives that may inadvertently strengthen President Tinubu’s re-election prospects.
According to him, “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.”
Affirming that the Southeast’s aspiration to produce a president remained legitimate and deserving of serious national engagement, he warned against reducing that aspiration to what it called “transactional political bargaining.”
Atiku then urged the opposition to focus on building a credible national coalition capable of defeating the incumbent rather than embracing narratives that may inadvertently strengthen President Tinubu’s re-election prospects.
According to him, “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.”
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