Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday described the decision by some opposition figures to insist on zoning the presidency to Southern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 elections as “self-defeating” and “intellectually dishonest,” warning that competence and national unity should take precedence over regional considerations.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, Atiku cautioned opposition political actors against the position that the 2027 presidential ticket must be zoned exclusively to the South.
The statement from Atiku coincided with an Arise TV interview by former Kano State Governor and architect of the Kwankwassiya Movement, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso on Monday , where he declared support for zoning the presidency to the South in 2027.
Besides, Kwankwaso indicated his willingness to serve as running mate to former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, if given the go-ahead by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Apart from the NDC, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had over the weekend zoned its presidential tickets to the southern part of the country.
But Atiku argued that while zoning in the All Progressives Congress (APC) may understandably be to retain the presidency around President Bola Tinubu, it would amount to political naivety for the opposition to adopt the same logic without a sober assessment of electoral realities.
According to him, politics must be driven by strategy, coalition-building, and hard electoral arithmetic, not emotional talking points or selective moral arguments.
He said: “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 former vice president further noted that the moral argument being advanced in favour of southern zoning has collapsed under scrutiny.
“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,” he added.
Atiku also accused some political actors of selective memory and opportunism, particularly those, who abandoned the zoning principle in 2011 following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, only to now present it as a sacred political doctrine.
“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,” he said.
While affirming that the Southeast’s aspiration to produce a president remained legitimate and deserving of serious national engagement, the statement warned against reducing that aspiration to what it called “transactional political bargaining.”
He added: “The Southeast deserves a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership, not symbolic tokenism or bespoke arrangements tailored to satisfy one individual’s ambition.”
The statement urged the opposition to focus on building a credible national coalition capable of defeating the incumbent rather than embracing narratives that might inadvertently strengthen Tinubu’s re-election prospects.
“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,” he stated.
Meanwhile, former Kano State Governor, Kwankwaso on Monday declared support for zoning the presidency to the South in 2027, while also indicating his willingness to serve as running mate to Obi, if adopted by their political alliance.
Speaking during an interview on PrimeTime, AriseTV, Kwankwaso explained that leaders within the coalition movement had resolved to support a southern presidential candidate in order to maintain national balance and address agitations surrounding power rotation.
According to him, the arrangement makes Obi the likely presidential flagbearer of the alliance ahead of the 2027 election.
“That is how it should be,” Kwankwaso said when asked if Obi will emerge as the front-runner for the coalition’s presidential ticket. He added: “If the party decides that I should be the running mate of any candidate from the south under the circumstances, I will be happy to work together with him.”
Kwankwaso explained that the decision to support a southern candidate was reached after extensive consultations among party leaders and stakeholders who, according to him, believe the country urgently needs competent and committed leadership rather than another divisive debate over regional power.
He said: “What is key now is not presidency from the North or from the South. What is key is to have quality leadership, people who are enthusiastic, determined and committed to give the country the leadership it deserves.”
The former minister of defence noted that many Nigerians, especially youths, were becoming less concerned about ethnicity and religion and more interested in leaders capable of tackling insecurity, economic hardship and poor infrastructure.
He also praised Obi, describing him as a credible partner in the push for national transformation.
“Personally, I cannot remember any better combination, no matter how much time you are given to find those who can beat us in terms of doing the right thing for this country,” he stated.
Kwankwaso dismissed suggestions that rivalry could emerge between himself and Obi if both eventually contest on the same ticket, insisting that his political experience had shown that successful partnerships between leaders and their deputies were possible.
Drawing from his experience as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Governor of Kano State, he said that greed and personal ambition were often responsible for conflicts within governments. “There is too much to be done for anybody to be fighting over power,” he stated.
He also defended the growing alliance between the Kwankwassiya and Obi’s Obidient movements, saying both groups were already working together across the country and in the diaspora.
According to him, the coalition enjoys increasing support from Nigerians dissatisfied with the current state of the nation.
On the ruling APC, he argued that despite its control of many states and political structures, Nigerians were becoming disillusioned with governance at both federal and state levels.
“The election of 2027 will be between Nigerians and the leaders,” he said, adding that many citizens were yearning for change due to economic hardship, insecurity and governance failures.
He further criticised political leaders for underestimating the influence of young Nigerians and social media, stressing that the younger generation was now more interested in effective leadership than ethnic or regional considerations.
Kwankwaso maintained that the opposition coalition remained focused on building a broad-based movement capable of delivering what he described as “solid and credible leadership” for Nigeria.
Chuks Okocha and Funmi Ogundare
