Former presidential spokesperson and Director-General Peter Obi’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has stated that the South, not the North, should produce Nigeria’s president in 2027.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Thursday in Lagos, Okupe argued that geopolitical considerations make it unfair for the North to reclaim the presidency after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tenure.
Okupe acknowledged that the 2023 presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is eminently qualified to run in 2027.
However, he contended that Atiku’s candidacy would face the same challenges as in 2023 when his bid was perceived as disrupting the North-South power rotation.
The ex-presidential spokesman said the problem with the idea of Atiku’s presidency in 2027 is geopolitics, not age, adding that the South should be allowed to complete its eight-year term, just as the North did before Tinubu’s coming.
Okupe said: “Atiku failed in 2023, not because he was not a good person, but because people felt that a northern Muslim cannot succeed another northern Muslim after eight years.
“If Atiku still contests in 2027, he has a right. He is eminently qualified and one of the best we have, but geopolitics is an issue.
“The conditionality still persists, a Southerner would have just completed four years and needs another four-year term.
“It’s not in the constitution, but we agree that when a Northerner does his eight years, a Southerner will do.
“So, the North cannot now terminate the tenure of the South in 2027. It is not going to work.”
The ex-LP chieftain said Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), could also vie for the highest office in the country in 2027 as a southerner.
He, however, said it would be difficult for Obi to dislodge Tinubu as the president.
“Obi can contest. Obi is a young man, very dynamic and very ambitious; but geopolitics is important in a country that has not achieved horizontal and vertical unity.
“The person who is occupying the place right now, Tinubu, is also a Southerner, who is doing well.
“We can see what this gentleman (Tinubu) is doing. I wish Obi luck, but it is going to be an uphill task,” he said.
…Alliance against Tinubu
On whether alliances of politicians and parties could unseat Tinubu in 2027, Okupe said he did not see any political gang-up working against the president.
According to him, alliances against Tinubu will fail because the participants will not be willing to give concessions.
Okupe stated: “I have been in this game for 40 years and above. I came into politics in 1978. I have been in several talks, and discussions and I have represented my party, and my movement in several alliances.
“We have not attained that maturity to get to the level of being rational and reasonable and ready to give the necessary concession for a group interest. We are not there yet.
“Even if you look at our private businesses, go and check, 90 per cent of business partnerships will crumble within the first three years.
“I wish those who are trying alliance, I wish them luck but it is going to end up the same way it has always ended up. All the alliances will end up in futility.”
On the alliance that brought ex-President Buhari in 2015, Okupe said that though he criticised the alliance, the leader of the alliance, Tinubu, conceded everything to make it work.
“The man who spearheaded that alliance has grown beyond this constitution of naivety and selfishness.
“You put up an alliance, you set up a dining table, you cook food, and say other people should go and eat it. It is not done anywhere.
“Everything, he conceded, so that the thing could work,” he said.
He expressed doubt in the readiness and willingness of opposition leaders such as Atiku, Obi (LP), and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), mulling an alliance against Tinubu in 2027, to concede for one another.
“If you look at it very well, that kind of maturity does not exist,” Okupe added.
…APC, NNPP clash on Kano
In a related development, the NNPP presidential election in the 2023 general elections, Senator Kwankwaso, has assured that his party would work to ensure the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) struggles to secure less than 15,000 votes in Kano state.
The NNPP leader, who is also a former governor of the state, said the party would relegate the party like it defeated PDP which got only 15,000 votes in 2023.
The former minister of defence said this while receiving a delegation of the NNPP from the Kano North senatorial district at his Miller Road Mansion in Kano.
He said: “Now, it’s time to diminish APC’s influence. We will work tirelessly to ensure their votes are reduced to less than 15,000 in Kano by 2027.”
The ex-lawmaker called on party supporters to redouble their efforts at mobilising at the grassroots to further firm up the party as a force to be reckon with in Kano state.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, leader of the team, Alhaji Abdul Bichi, said the visit was to renew their loyalty to Kwankwaso, the party’s national leader.
He said: “It is true we are supporters of the former SSG, and we are from the same constituency as Dr. Abdullahi Baffa Bichi. But we have decided to distance ourselves from him since he is no longer with the government.
“We have come here to see our national leader and founder of Kwankwaso in solidarity and to renew our total loyalty to him. We have come to say we are not leaving our party. We are not going with the SSG.”
In a swift reaction however, the Kano state chapter of the APC, said it was battle ready to beat NNPP in the 2027 poll in the state.
The state chairman of the party, Prince Abdullahi Abbas, gave the assurance in a statement Thursday in Kano.
While declaring that Kwankwaso would meet his political waterloo, saying “our teeming supporters in the APC have no cause to worry.”
The party said it was already getting set to reclaim the state from the NNPP.