Atiku’s presidential bid unrealisable, against zoning

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has declared that the 2027 presidential ambition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakarremains a “mirage” in the face of Nigeria’s entrenched North-South zoning arrangement.

Okechukwu asserted while reacting to reports that Atiku had engaged a Washington-based lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., in a $1.2 million deal aimed at boosting his international image ahead of the next general elections.

According to him, while such global outreach may enhance perception abroad, it fails to address what he described as the former PDP presidential candidate’s “core political handicap” at home — his perceived disregard for the zoning convention.

“Zoning remains the minimum in Nigeria’s power-sharing formula,” Okechukwu said, stating: “No amount of foreign image laundering can override a deeply rooted domestic consensus built on equity, fairness, and national cohesion.”

He argued that since the return to democratic rule in 1999, Nigerians have largely embraced the informal but powerful convention of rotating the presidency between the North and the South to promote unity and inclusion.

Okechukwu stressed that Atiku’s repeated presidential pursuits, particularly in 2023, were significantly undermined by the prevailing sentiment that power should shift to the South after eight years of northern leadership