According to a report by Daily Post on Monday, May 11, 2026, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has explained why opposition parties in Nigeria should reconsider zoning their 2027 presidential ticket to the South ahead of party primaries.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, Atiku warned opposition politicians against adopting what he described as a damaging and misleading narrative that the 2027 presidential ticket must automatically be reserved for the South.
He stated that while the ruling All Progressives Congress may decide to retain power in the South because of the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it would be politically unwise for opposition parties to follow the same path without carefully examining the country’s electoral realities.
According to the former vice president, politics should be guided by strategy, alliance-building, and realistic electoral calculations rather than emotional sentiments or what he called selective moral arguments.
He maintained that opposition parties must approach the 2027 election with practical political thinking if they hope to challenge the ruling party successfully.
The statement also questioned the possibility of a Southern opposition candidate defeating a sitting Southern president in Nigeria’s political history.
Atiku’s camp argued that there is no previous example of such an outcome, insisting that the opposition should focus on the most effective path toward electoral victory instead of relying on narratives that may weaken their chances.
The former vice president further accused some political figures of inconsistency and political opportunism over the zoning debate.
He said certain individuals who ignored the zoning principle after the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2011 are now presenting the same principle as an untouchable political doctrine.
The statement added that while the Southeast’s ambition to produce a Nigerian president remains valid and deserves serious national discussion, such aspirations should not be reduced to what it described as transactional political negotiations.
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….Read_More…