2027: Ex-VON DG Okechukwu urges Atiku, Northerners to respect zoning arrangement

…Endorses Tinubu for Second Term

By Chinedu Adonu

Ahead of the 2027 general election, a former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has urged northern politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to respect the zoning arrangement that rotates presidential power between the North and the South.

Okechukwu made the call 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 insisted that the South is yet to complete its turn under the zoning arrangement, stressing that the region is constitutionally and morally entitled to retain the presidency until 2031.

According to him, attempts by northern politicians to contest the presidency in 2027 amount to an effort to undermine a convention designed to promote national unity, fairness and equity.

Okechukwu singled out Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of seeking 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 trigger deep political divisions and destabilise the country’s democratic process.

The former VON Director-General also said the ongoing APC e-registration exercise demonstrates the party’s commitment to transparency and internal democracy ahead of the 2027 elections, adding that the APC is fully prepared to re-elect President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to him, President Tinubu’s second term would deliver greater dividends to Nigerians, noting that the first term has largely been devoted to implementing critical economic reforms.

He urged northern aspirants to allow the APC to complete the South’s tenure before power returns to the North in 2031.

“Before we started, we held a meeting and agreed that we are endorsing President Bola 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.

Okechukwu dismissed opposition plans, arguing that no alternative candidate can 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 looking at his antecedents, we do not see what he would offer that is better than the APC candidate,” he said.

Tracing the origin of zoning in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, Okechukwu said the rotation convention was deliberately adopted to heal past injustices and foster national cohesion.

“The Fourth Republic began with the zoning arrangement, conceived by Nigerian patriots to promote unity, oneness, a sense of belonging and equity. It was because of zoning that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar became Vice President in 1999,” he stated.

He recalled that the convention persuaded several northern aspirants to step down in favour of a southern presidency at the dawn of the Fourth Republic.

“If not for zoning, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Alhaji Shinkafi, Alhaji Adamu Chiroma and Bukola Saraki were all preparing to contest the presidency. But we agreed that throughout the military era, the North dominated national affairs and that the June 12 election was annulled, so the presidency had to start from the South, and it 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 President Jonathan of taking the North’s turn. In 2019, when no southerner contested because of zoning, he won the PDP ticket. In 2023, when it was the South’s turn, he still insisted on contesting, and that was why many Nigerian patriots, both North and South, did not vote for the PDP,” he said.

He warned that continued attempts to undermine the zoning arrangement could fracture the country’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 concluded by urging Nigerians across all regions to allow the APC to complete the South’s tenure in the interest of national unity.

“For the interest of Nigerians, both North and South should allow the APC to complete the tenure of the South. In 2031, it will be the turn of the North to present the president, and no southerner will contest,” he said.

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