UPDATED: 'Since Buhari completed his eight years, Tinubu too must complete his own'

A presidential spokesperson stated on Thursday that President Bola Tinubu must be allowed a second term in office to complete the constitutionally allowed eight years.

Bayo Onanuga stated this in response to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s statement on Wednesday during an interview on Arise TV Prime Time that he did not believe it was still the turn of Southern Nigeria to hold the office of the president in 2027.

Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said that the South had held power for about 18 years since 1999, compared to the North’s 10 years, arguing that this imbalance complicates claims of rotational equity.

“So, who’s in a deficit if we’re being fair?” he asked, while defending his position that zoning is not a binding national rule but an internal party arrangement.

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Responding on his verified X handle, Mr Onanuga accused Atiku of advancing what he called a “self-serving argument” and attempting to distort the historical basis of power rotation between North and South.

“This Atiku will never learn,” he wrote, arguing that the former vice president had previously ignored zoning principles within the PDP and that this contributed to his electoral defeats.

He maintained that Atiku’s 2023 presidential bid breached the PDP’s internal zoning arrangement, where a southern candidate was expected after the eight-year tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Onanuga added that Atiku’s current position was inconsistent with the political arrangement that followed the transition from Mr Buhari, a former president from Katsina State in the North, to Mr Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor from the South.

He said the former vice president has a history of jettisoning an unwritten rotational principle that many citizens agree to, which allows the office of the president to rotate between the North and the South every eight years.

“Since Buhari completed his eight years, Tinubu too must complete his own,” Mr Onanuga wrote on X on Thursday morning.

He also dismissed Atiku’s argument that the South has spent more years in office since 1999, describing it as selective arithmetic that ignored the circumstances surrounding the death of former President Musa Yar’Adua in 2010, which led to the succession of then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to Mr Onanuga, the transition did not invalidate the informal rotation principle between both regions.

Late President Muhammadu Buhari was from Katsina, Northern Nigeria, while Mr Tinubu is from Lagos, Southern Nigeria.

Atiku is from Adamawa in Northern Nigeria and is seen as a leading aspirant for the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress.

Atiku’s long political journey

Mr Atiku’s political career spans over three decades, marked by repeated attempts to clinch the presidency.

He served as vice president between 1999 and 2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo and has contested the presidency multiple times under different parties, including the PDP, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Congress (AC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where he is currently linked to emerging coalition discussions.

He first ran for president in 1993 under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primaries but stepped down in support of the late Moshood Abiola, who went on to win the annulled election.

He later contested in 2007 on the platform of the ActionUPDATED: ‘Since Buhari completed his eight years, Tinubu too must complete his own’ – Presidency Congress but lost to the late Mr Yar’Adua of the PDP.

In 2011, he again contested for the presidential ticket of PDP and lost in the party’s primary election to Goodluck Jonathan, who was the flagbearer of the then-ruling party and the eventual winner of the election.

Atiku left the PDP in February 2014 to join the APC, which was formed in February 2013 but registered by INEC in July 2013. He participated in the party’s presidential primary but lost to Late Mr Buhari, who went on to win the 2015 presidential election.

He returned to the PDP in 2017 and emerged as its candidate in the 2019 election, but was again defeated by Mr Buhari of the APC.

In 2023, he secured the PDP ticket once more but finished second, losing to the current president, Bola Tinubu.

Read Mr Onanuga’s full statement below.

This Atiku will never learn.

Once again, Abubakar Atiku has put forward a self-serving argument to justify his attempt to disrupt Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement. In 2023, as a member of the PDP—a party that, like others, practices zoning—Atiku disregarded the established formula and sought to succeed a fellow northerner, who had spent eight years in office. His ambition fractured the PDP, leading to his resounding defeat at the polls.

READ ALSO: Atiku expresses concerns over World Bank report on Nigeria’s fiscal structure

Now, he stands poised to repeat history and face another doom. Another spectacular failure awaits this perennial candidate in the next election.

In his interview with Charles Aniagolu on Wednesday, Atiku, now sounding like the presumed ADC candidate (Peter Obi, get ready to bolt away), revisited his 2023 argument on the North-South power rotation. In a brazenly self-serving twist, he insisted he is not bound by the rotation formula because, according to him, the South has spent more years in office than the North since 1999. His political arithmetic is dubious.

He conveniently overlooks the fact that the North’s shorter tenure was due to the untimely death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, which led to President Jonathan’s succession. This accidental breach does not invalidate the power rotation arrangement between the North and the South. Since Buhari completed his eight years, Tinubu too must complete his own. All Atiku needs to do is to bury the thought of running again, as it is still the South’s turn in the 2027 election.