Onanuga Advises Atiku To Drop Presidential Bid For Tinubu

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his recent comments on Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement, accusing him of attempting to upend the North-South zoning formula ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

In a strongly worded statement, Onanuga said Atiku’s position threatens the long-standing rotational understanding, warning that the former presidential candidate risks repeating what he described as a political miscalculation that contributed to his defeat in 2023.

He recalled that during the last general election, Atiku, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, ignored the party’s zoning principle by contesting to succeed a fellow northerner after eight years in office.

This action he said, deepened internal divisions within the party and weakened its electoral chances.

Onanuga also described Atiku as a “perennial candidate,” warning that pursuing the presidency again in 2027 could lead to another defeat.

Reacting to Atiku’s Wednesday interview on Arise Television, Onanuga dismissed the former Vice President’s claim that the South has held power longer than the North since 1999 as “dubious” and self-serving.

He argued that the North’s shorter time in office was not by design but the result of the untimely death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, which led to the constitutional succession of Goodluck Jonathan.

According to him, that development does not invalidate the principle of rotational presidency between the two regions.

Onanuga further insisted that following the completion of eight years in office by former President Muhammadu Buhari, the current administration under President Bola Tinubu must also be allowed to complete its tenure in line with the zoning understanding.

He urged Atiku to shelve any fresh presidential ambition and respect the rotational arrangement, maintaining that 2027 remains the turn of the South.

“Once again, Abubakar Atiku has put forward a self-serving argument to justify his attempt to disrupt Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement. In 2023, as a member of the PDP, a party that, like others, practices zoning, Atiku disregarded the established formula and sought to succeed a fellow northerner, who had spent eight years in office.

“His ambition fractured the PDP, leading to his resounding defeat at the polls. Now, he stands poised to repeat history and face another doom. Another spectacular failure awaits this perennial candidate in the next election.

“In his interview with Charles Aniagolu on Wednesday, Atiku, now sounding like the presumed ADC candidate (Peter Obi, get ready to bolt away), revisited his 2023 argument on the North-South power rotation.

“In a brazenly self-serving twist, he insisted he is not bound by the rotation formula because, according to him, the South has spent more years in office than the North since 1999. His political arithmetic is dubious.

“He conveniently overlooks the fact that the North’s shorter tenure was due to the untimely death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, which led to President Jonathan’s succession. This accidental breach does not invalidate the power rotation arrangement between the North and the South.

“Since Buhari completed his eight years, Tinubu too must complete his own. All Atiku needs to do is to bury the thought of running again, as it is still the South’s turn in the 2027 election,” Onanuga wrote.