Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned opposition parties against zoning their 2027 presidential ticket to the South, saying it would weaken efforts to unseat President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, Atiku described calls for a Southern candidate within opposition ranks as “self-defeating and intellectually dishonest.”
“How does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president?” the statement asked.
Atiku argued that electoral victory should be based on strategy and political realities, not regional sentiment. He said Nigeria’s history shows no incumbent president has ever been defeated by an opposition challenger from the same region.
By 2027, the South would have held the presidency for nearly 18 years in the Fourth Republic, compared to about 10 years for the North, he said, making another Southern presidency difficult to justify “under the guise of equity.”
He also accused some pro-zoning actors of double standards, noting that many backed former President Goodluck Jonathan’s emergence in 2011 after Umaru Yar’Adua’s death.
On calls for a South-East presidency, Atiku said the region deserves “a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership,” not “symbolic tokenism.”
His remarks come as opposition parties debate zoning and coalition talks ahead of 2027.
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