Bayo Onanuga, the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy has accused former vice president, Atiku Abubakar of trying to disrupt the existing power rotation arrangement in Nigeria.
Reacting to Atiku’s recent interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time Programme, Onanuga said the former vice president has consistently shown that he will never learn from past incidents.
Recall that Atiku while responding to the interviewer’s question on zoning for the presidency said that the claim that the south should serve for eight years because the north has completed its eight years is “an argument in error.”
According to the former vice president, it is only the People Democratic Party (PDP) that has the zoning arrangement.
When queried why he agreed with the zoning arrangement during his tenure as vice president to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku argued, “The South has governed for 18 years, and the North has done 10 years. So, who’s in a deficit if we’re being fair?”
In this reaction, Onanuga added that, as a PDP member, Atiku disregarded the established formula and sought to succeed a fellow northerner, who had spent eight years in office.
He said the ambition of the former vice president fractured the PDP and led to his “resounding defeat at the polls.”
“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,” Onanuga said.
Further alleging that the political arithmetic of the two-time presidential candidate is “dubious”, Onanuga said Atiku 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,” he added.
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