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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Ahead of the 2027 general election, a former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has endorsed President Bola Tinubu for a second term, insisting that presidential power must remain in the South until 2031 in line with Nigeria’s zoning arrangement.
Okechukwu made his position known at the weekend during the All Progressives Congress (APC) membership e-registration exercise at his Eke Ward in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State.
He urged northern politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to respect the rotation convention that allocates presidential power between the North and the South, describing it as critical to national unity, fairness and equity.
According to him, the South is yet to complete its turn under the zoning arrangement, stressing that any attempt to contest the presidency from the North in 2027 would amount to truncating a long-standing national consensus.
Okechukwu singled out Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of attempting to undermine the same zoning principle from which he benefitted in 1999 when he emerged as Vice President.
He warned that abandoning the rotation convention could lead to serious political fractures across the country.
The former VON DG said the ongoing APC e-registration exercise reflected the party’s commitment to transparency and internal democracy ahead of the 2027 elections, adding that the party was fully mobilised for the re-election of President Tinubu.
He expressed confidence that Tinubu’s second term would bring greater benefits to Nigerians, noting that the president had used his first term to implement far-reaching economic reforms.
Okechukwu urged northern aspirants to allow the APC to complete the South’s tenure before power shifts to the North in 2031.
“Before we started, we held a meeting and agreed that we are endorsing President Ahmed Tinubu for a second tenure. We are endorsing him because we are hardworking people and we have a reform programme that will favour those who work hard. All advanced countries started by working hard,” he said.
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He dismissed opposition plans, arguing that no alternative presidential candidate could match Tinubu’s credentials.
“We do not know any alternative better than him that our sister political parties are going to present as presidential candidates. If you look at the African Democratic Congress (ADC), for instance, they have presumed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as their presidential flag bearer, but if you look at his antecedents, we do not know what he is going to present that is better than the APC presidential candidate,” he stated.
Tracing the origin of zoning in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, Okechukwu said the arrangement was deliberately adopted to correct historical imbalances and foster national cohesion.
“If you consider the fact that the Fourth Republic started with the rotation convention, it was conceived by Nigerian patriots for unity, oneness, a sense of belonging and equity. It was because of zoning that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar became Vice President in 1999,” he said.
He recalled that the convention persuaded several northern aspirants to step down in favour of a southern presidency at the beginning of the Fourth Republic.
“If not for that zoning, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Alhaji Shinkafi, Alhaji Adamu Chiroma and Bukola Saraki were all preparing to run for president. But we sat down and agreed that throughout the military era the North dominated the affairs of the country and that Abiola’s election was truncated, so we had to start from the South, and we did,” he said.
Okechukwu further accused Atiku of acting against the zoning principle in subsequent elections.
“In 2014, Atiku walked out of the PDP convention, accusing then President Jonathan of taking the turn of the North. In 2019, when no southerner contested because of zoning, he won the PDP ticket. In 2023, when it was the turn of the South, he still insisted on contesting,” he said.
He warned that undermining the zoning arrangement could destabilise Nigeria’s political system.
“We are not the first people to practise rotation. It started in Switzerland in 1848. What the ADC is trying to do now is to poison that convention, and political fracture will follow,” Okechukwu warned.
He urged Nigerians across all regions to allow the APC to complete the South’s tenure in the interest of national unity.
