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By Lawrence Agbo
Atiku Abubakar has pledged to support a constitutional amendment for rotational presidency if elected in 2027, admitting that he made a mistake in the past by opposing the idea.
Speaking on Prime Time on Arise Television on Wednesday, the former vice-president said he now believes that embedding rotational presidency in Nigeria’s constitution would create a fairer and more stable system of power-sharing across the country.
Atiku said that if he becomes president, he would push for the amendment even if it is the only constitutional reform he is able to achieve during his tenure.
“If I am president, even if it is the only amendment I can make, I would move towards that,” he said.
Reflecting on earlier constitutional debates, he recalled opposing a proposal by the late former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, who had advocated for rotational presidency.
According to Atiku, he and others blocked the amendment at the time because they controlled the majority of delegates, a decision he now regrets.
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“There was an argument between the late Alex Ekwueme and myself. He proposed a provision in the constitution for rotational presidency, and I opposed it,” Abubakar recalled.
“Because we controlled about 60 to 70 percent of the delegates, the amendment did not go through.”
He said he later acknowledged this regret during Ekwueme’s funeral, admitting that supporting the amendment then would have allowed the presidency to rotate more evenly among Nigeria’s regions.
“In hindsight, when I attended his funeral, I admitted that I made a mistake. I should have supported that amendment, and the presidency would have rotated to all regions of the country,” he said.
Atiku also argued that constitutional rotational presidency remains the most equitable way to manage Nigeria’s diversity and ensure balanced national representation.
He added that the Peoples Democratic Party remains the only major political party in Nigeria with zoning formally embedded in its constitution, saying other parties have merely borrowed from the PDP model.
“The only political party that has zoning in its constitution is the PDP. The rest do not have it. If anything, all the other political parties are borrowing or learning from the PDP,” he said.
