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 that he did not believe it was still the turn of Southern Nigeria to hold the office of the president in 2027.

Mr Onanuga said Atiku 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.

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 also came second in the last presidential election in 2023, losing to Mr Tinubu.

Details later…

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.

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.

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

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. x.com/Onsogbu/status

President Tinubu Must Complete His Full Eight Years, Spokesperson Says

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