2027: Why Atiku’s coalition, others should zone presidency to South – NSPF

The South-North Progressives Forum (SNPF) has given reasons the political coalition led by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai should zone presidential ticket to the South ahead of the 2027 general election.

The new political group consist of various major stakeholders from the All political parties including the APC, PDP, Labour Party, SDP, ADP, ADP and many others.

Aside coalition, the group also called on all other political parties to zone their presidential tickets to the north with sole aim of balance the imbalance in the power sharing over the years between the North and the South.

Addressing a pressCconference on Saturday in Abuja, Convener of the group, Onyekwulisi Ikechwuku, said the South deserves another tenure of four years according to the federal character principle, which seeks equitable representation in federal appointments and public resource allocation.

He said historically, the nation has witnessed a disparity in power dynamics, with the North holding power for 24 years and the South for 18 years since the parliamentary democracy of 1957 to the constitutional democracy of 1999.

Ikechwuku was of the opinion that it was time to address this imbalance and ensure the every region has a fair opportunity to lead our great nation.

To this end, the group said it was proposing an explicit constitutional framework for power rotation between the South and North.

This, Ikechwuku noted, would allow regional blocs to micro zone the presidency and ensure every Nigerian has a voice in our national development.

He said alternatively, there should be an executive bill for electoral reform that would engender power rotation in all the political parties in order to maintain the ease of power equality across the sub-regions

Ikechwuku said this was not a partisan issue but a national imperative that would allow Nigerians to make informed choices based on merit and ensure our nation’s continued progress.

His words: “We call on all patriots, stakeholders, and organizations, political parties, especially the purported coalition platform, to join us in ceding their presidential candidates to the South for the 2027 election, ensuring another tenure of four years.

“We commit to leading the same campaign for the North in 2031, demonstrating our passion for equality and stability in nation building.

“We’ve designed a robust mobilisation framework to actualise this mission, guaranteeing a minimum of 10 million eligible voters before 2027, with 80 per cent mobilised from our Northern brethren.”