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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his claims on rotational presidency.
Atiku had, in an interview on Wednesday night, claimed that the southern presidents have sat in the presidential seat in Aso Rock more times than a president from Northern Nigeria has. He also said he would push for a constitutional amendment to enable rotational presidency if elected.
Onanuga, in a post shared on X on Thursday morning, said Atiku disregarded the established formula of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and sought to succeed a fellow northerner in 2023 when he was a PDP member.
According to Onanuga, Atiku’s political ambition in 2023 fractured the PDP and caused his defeat in the 2023 presidential election.
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…
— Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON (@aonanuga1956) April 16, 2026
“Now, he stands poised to repeat history and face another doom. Another spectacular failure awaits this perennial candidate in the next election,” said Onanuga.
“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.”
Onanuga added that the North’s shorter tenure was due to the death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, which led to the succession of former President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the “accidental breach” does not invalidate the power rotation arrangement between the North and the South.
He further urged Atiku to bury his presidential ambition.
“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.
Atiku, who has been a major contender in Nigeria’s presidential elections since the country’s return to democracy in 1999, said he would stop contesting after 2027.
