Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, has fired back at the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, George Akume over his remark that no northern candidate should contest the 2027 Presidential election.
The magazine reports that Akume made the remark while appearing on a TVC programme recently.
According to him, presidential candidates from the northern part of the country, including Abubakar should wait until 2031 when the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should have completed his second term in office.
The former PDP presidential candidate and Nigeria’s former Vice President is presumed to be one of the top contenders for the next presidential election in the country.
Akume however urged Abubakar to shelve his ambition for now, to allow Tinubu, who has yet to complete his first term in office, to continue to be in power till 2031.
His remarks comes on the heels of calls on President Tinubu by his supporters to contest the next presidential election.
Akume had advised Abubakar, “President Tinubu, as a Southerner, should be allowed to have a second term, meaning that those eyeing the presidency from the North in 2027 should look beyond that year by waiting till 2031.
“If it is the will of God for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be President of Nigeria, even at the age of 90 years, he can get it. But he and other Northerners eyeing the office now should look beyond 2027.”
Reacting Abubakar’s spokesman Paul Ibe said it’s the turn of the north to take over the Presidency after the south has held the position for 17 years, saying the north has been short-changed for six years in the nation’s power sharing arrangement.
According to Abubakar, the north should be allowed to return to power having held power only for 11 years from the nation’s 28 years democratic experience which started in 1999, when Nigeria return to democratic governance after a long military rule.
The former vice president said this is necessary to achieve equity and fairness in the country between the north and south, the two major legs of the nation’s power sharing arrangement.
The former PDP candidate also stated that Akume cannot make the decision for Nigerians on who to lead them, saying that right belongs to the voters, adding that Nigerians are already tired of the Tinubu’s administration and would not want him back in power.
Atiku said, “Where, then, does true equity and fairness reside?(if Tinubu is allowed to return to power in 2027) By the year 2027, the South will have enjoyed 17 years of leadership—eight years under Obasanjo, five years under Jonathan, and four years under Tinubu—while the North will have experienced only 11 years, with Yar’Adua serving three and Buhari eight.
“This results in a disparity of six years between the North and South, casting a shadow over the balance of power.
“In any case, the power to elect and vote out their government lies firmly with the Nigerian people, entrusted to them upon the government’s ability to prove itself worthy of the people’s ballot. But has the Tinubu government demonstrated that it deserves to be re-elected? The answer, alas, is as clear as the heavens themselves—God forbid.”
Recall that Abubakar lost the 2023 presidential election to Tinubu who won the contested election by over six million votes, according to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
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