Shehu Sani says Atiku victory would end Nigeria’s rotation tradition
Former senator Shehu Sani says political parties should nominate southern candidates for Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election, arguing that an Atiku Abubakar victory would weaken the informal rotation of power between the country’s North and South. He acknowledged that the Constitution does not prevent Atiku or any other northerner from contesting.
Former Kaduna Central senator Shehu Sani has said Nigeria’s informal arrangement of rotating the presidency between its northern and southern regions would be undermined if African Democratic Congress candidate Atiku Abubakar wins the 2027 election. Sani made the comment during an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday. He argued that political parties should nominate candidates from southern Nigeria for the next presidential contest.
He said an Atiku victory could generate “hard and bitter feelings” in the South and add to existing tensions in the political system. Sani said he did not believe a northern candidate would assume power easily or conveniently for people in the southern part of the country. Sani proposed that the South should be allowed to hold the presidency for eight years, after which a northern candidate could take over in 2031.
He said this sequence would reduce opposition from southern Nigeria when power returned to the North. The former lawmaker stressed that he was not arguing that Atiku should be barred from running. He acknowledged that the Nigerian Constitution gives Atiku, like any other northerner, the right to contest the presidency.
His position, he said, concerned political convention rather than a legal restriction. Sani suggested that parties nominate southern figures, naming Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress and Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement as possible candidates. He said southern candidates should compete for a four-year term, after which the North would have an “unchallengeable opportunity” to produce the country’s leadership.
Rotational presidency is an informal political arrangement under which parties may alternate presidential tickets between Nigeria’s northern and southern regions. It is not a constitutional requirement. The presidential election is scheduled for January 16, 2027, with President Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Omoyele Sowore among the candidates identified in the source material.
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