Diran Odeyemi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Executive Committee, and Anslem Eragbe, a Labour Party chieftain, have cautioned former Vice President Atiku Abubakar not to run for president in 2027.
Both Odeyemi and Eragbe believed the South should be permitted to reign for eight years.
They suggested that President Bola Tinubu may not be the southern president in 2027.
In an interview, Eragbe stated that Atiku should not have run for president in 2023 since the South’s turn had come.
He said, “Atiku was not supposed to contest the 2023 presidential election because it was the turn of southern Nigeria. It is the turn of the South until 2031.
“Being a former Vice President of Nigeria for eight years, Atiku knows Nigeria’s power drill and equation. He should support younger Nigerians to power and provide guidance in 2027.”
Speaking on if the former vice president would breach any law if he chooses to run for the nation’s highest office in 2027, Eragbe said the PDP stalwart “is entitled to his ambition and aspirations, adding, however, that “2027–2031 is for southern Nigeria.”
According to Odeyemi, the 2027 presidency shall remain in southern Nigeria and should be zoned to the South-South region.
“It should be further micro-zoned to the (defunct) midwestern region. I mean the defunct Bendel, now Edo and Delta states. We expect the major political parties to do this for equity, justice, fairness, and parity.
“However, should President Bola Tinubu win the 2027 presidential election and continue until 2031, power shall return to Northern Nigeria,” he added.
Eregba, a former president of the Student Union Government of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, added that when compared with other geopolitical zones in the country, the South-South had spent the least number of years on the presidential seat.
“The region that has ruled the least in Nigeria is the South-South, with only five years under Goodluck Jonathan, and should rule Nigeria again beginning in 2027.
“When put together, the North-Central spent a total of 17 years and 11 months, North-West, 17 years, three months; North-East, 10 years, three months; South-West, 15 years, four months; by the time Tinubu finishes his term in May 2027; South East spent five years and nine months, and the South-South, the only region to spend five years only on the presidential seat,” he added.
Eragbe urged political parties to recruit competent politicians, regardless of financial standing, to run for various electoral seats, emphasizing that 2027 would provide another opportunity to remedy past wrongs.
On his part, Odeyemi stated that the ex-vice president’s participation in the 2023 presidential election and his perceived ambitions for 2027 were the causes of the PDP crisis.
He charged Atiku to bury his ambition, adding that once the former vice president failed to declare interest in 2027, the crisis in the party would be over.
“The 2023 election was originally supposed to be between southerners, as former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, had just completed eight years in office. However, Atiku insisted on exercising his rights, which is why there is a crisis in the PDP,” he stated.
