The Presidency has insisted that the 2027 election remains the turn of the South under Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement, advising former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to abandon his renewed presidential ambition.
The position was conveyed by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on his verified X handle, where he described Atiku’s renewed bid as a self-serving move that disregards the established North-South zoning principle.
Further criticising the former Vice President, Mr Onanuga said Atiku had failed to draw lessons from the 2023 electoral experience, when, as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he disregarded the party’s zoning arrangement and sought to succeed a fellow northerner who had completed eight years in office.
“This Atiku will never learn.
“Once again, Abubakar Atiku has put forward a self-serving argument to justify his attempt to disrupt Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement.
“In 2023, as a member of the PDP—a party that, like others, practices zoning—Atiku disregarded the established formula and sought to succeed a fellow northerner, who had spent eight years in office.
“His ambition fractured the PDP, leading to his resounding defeat at the polls,” the Presidential aide stated.
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Mr Onanuga added that the former vice president is set to repeat the same political miscalculation, saying that they will once again end in electoral defeat for Atiku Abubakar, whom he has described as a perennial candidate.
He faulted Atiku’s argument that he is not bound by the zoning arrangement, claiming that the South has held power longer than the North since 1999, an assertion the presidential aide dismissed as questionable and politically untenable.
“Now, he stands poised to repeat history and face another doom. Another spectacular failure awaits this perennial candidate in the next election.
“In his interview with Charles Aniagolu on Wednesday, Atiku, now sounding like the presumed ADC candidate (Peter Obi, get ready to bolt away), revisited his 2023 argument on the North-South power rotation. In a brazenly self-serving twist, he insisted he was not bound by the rotation formula because, according to him, the South has spent more years in office than the North since 1999. His political arithmetic is dubious. “ Onanuga added
The Presidential aide said the former Vice President overlooks the historical context behind the North’s shorter tenure, noting that it was occasioned by the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, which necessitated the constitutional succession of Goodluck Jonathan.