Atiku Calls Southern Zoning ‘Self-Defeating’ as Kwankwaso Backs Peter Obi for 2027

The 2027 presidential race is already getting messy. The opposition has not even agreed on a direction yet.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rejected calls by opposition figures to zone the 2027 presidency to southern Nigeria, calling the idea “self-defeating” and “intellectually dishonest.” His position puts him on a collision course with Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, who on Monday publicly threw his weight behind Peter Obi for the presidency and even offered to serve as his running mate.

Atiku’s Argument: Strategy Over Sentiment

In a statement released by his spokesperson, Olusola Sanni, Atiku argued that winning the presidency is about coalition-building and electoral arithmetic, not emotional talking points. His most pointed line: “How does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president? Nigerian political history offers no precedent for such an outcome.”

He went further, noting that by 2027, the South would have held presidential power for roughly 18 years in the Fourth Republic compared to about 10 years for the North. “It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity,” Atiku said.

The former presidential candidate also took aim at what he called selective memory. Many now-vocal supporters of southern zoning had no problem backing Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, when he took over following Yar’Adua’s death in 2011, despite the North’s expectation under the informal rotational arrangement. “Principles do not become sacred only when they align with personal ambition,” he said.

Kwankwaso Breaks Ranks, Backs Peter Obi

While Atiku was releasing his statement, Kwankwaso was on Arise TV saying something entirely different. The former Kano governor declared his support for zoning the presidency to the South in 2027 and said he would be willing to serve as Peter Obi’s running mate, subject to approval from his party, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

The split is not just personal. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) had already over the weekend zoned its presidential ticket to the South, adding to the sense that a chunk of the northern opposition is genuinely open to a southern candidacy in 2027.

What This Means for the Opposition

The public disagreement between two of the opposition’s heaviest hitters signals a deeper fracture. Without unity on something as basic as who should contest, the opposition risks heading into 2027 as divided as it was in 2023. That did not end well.

Atiku acknowledged the Southeast’s aspiration to produce a president is “legitimate and deserving of serious national engagement,” but warned against reducing it to “transactional political bargaining” or “symbolic tokenism.”

Whether that framing lands or just reads as a northern politician protecting his own ambitions will largely depend on who is listening.

Sources: Arise TV, Punch, Vanguard