Osita Okechukwu warns Atiku's 2027 bid breaches zoning, fuels Northern tension
APC chieftain Osita Okechukwu says Atiku Abubakar's African Democratic Congress presidential candidacy for 2027 violates Nigeria's power-rotation convention, deepening political tension across the North. In a signed statement today, the former Voice of Nigeria DG argued that Atiku's 2023 PDP zoning breach already damaged national cohesion, and a southern ADC candidate would have made the 2027 contest less acrimonious.
Okechukwu invoked 1999 elders—Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Sola Saraki, Alex Ekwueme, Ogbonnaya Onu—who subordinated personal ambition to preserve unity. He cited the peaceful 1999, 2007, and 2019 elections as proof that rotation sustains balance. "Zoning convention should not be treated as expendable merely to accommodate an individual's ambition," he said, especially with no concrete economic solution offered.
He also flagged security personnel deployed to guard campaign billboards while kidnappings, farmer-herder clashes, and insurgencies persist. Okechukwu warned against framing 2027 as a North-versus-South zero-sum game, saying such rhetoric could endanger Nigeria's democracy.
With zoning debates resurfacing ahead of 2027, will the major parties prioritize rotation convention over individual ambition—or will ethno-identity politics dictate the next presidential ticket?