Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s camp has pushed back strongly against growing calls for the opposition to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, warning that such a move could hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
In a statement released Monday by his media aide, Olusola Sanni, the former vice president’s camp argued that asking the opposition to field another southern candidate against a sitting southern president makes little political sense and ignores Nigeria’s electoral history.
According to the statement, no opposition candidate from the same geopolitical region as an incumbent president has ever succeeded in defeating that incumbent at the polls.
“The opposition must decide whether it wants to make a symbolic statement or actually win power,” the statement said, describing the push for southern zoning as politically risky and disconnected from electoral realities.
While acknowledging that the ruling APC may choose to retain power in the South around Tinubu’s candidacy, Atiku’s camp insisted the opposition cannot afford to approach the election with sentiment instead of strategy.
The statement also dismissed claims that another southern presidency would amount to fairness or balance.
It argued that by 2027, the South would have occupied the presidency for about 18 years since the return of democracy in 1999, compared to roughly 10 years for the North, making the argument for continued southern leadership difficult to justify on equity grounds.
Atiku’s camp also accused some political actors of selectively applying the zoning principle.
It pointed to the events of 2011, when many politicians who now advocate rotational presidency supported former President Goodluck Jonathan’s candidacy despite expectations that power should have returned to the North after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
“It is intellectually dishonest for those who supported a southern presidency in 2011 to now suddenly present zoning as an untouchable principle,” the statement noted.
On the question of the Southeast producing a president, the statement said the region deserves a genuine and sustainable route to national leadership rather than what it described as symbolic gestures or arrangements designed around individual ambitions.
The Atiku camp urged opposition figures to focus instead on building a broad national coalition capable of challenging Tinubu effectively in 2027, warning that emotional debates over zoning could ultimately weaken the opposition and strengthen the ruling party.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president from Adamawa State, remains one of the most influential opposition politicians ahead of the 2027 presidential race and is widely expected to play a major role in coalition talks within the opposition.
