The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, fired a warning at opposition political actors, telling them that insisting on zoning the 2027 presidential ticket to the South would amount to entering the contest “already defeated.”

In the same way, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, criticised NDC’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria for a single term.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Olusola Sanni, the former VP described the push for a southern opposition candidate as “self-defeating and intellectually dishonest”, arguing that Nigerian political history offered no precedent for an opposition challenger from the same geopolitical bloc as a sitting President ever unseating that President.

The camp acknowledged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) could reasonably retain its southern presidential configuration around incumbent President Bola Tinubu, but argued that the opposition had no business applying the same logic without a cold-eyed assessment of electoral realities.

On the equity argument advanced by proponents of southern zoning, the Atiku camp was dismissive.

ALSO, Keyamo described the move as deceptive and politically desperate.

In a post on his X handle yesterday, the minister said the arrangement was an attempt to mislead Nigerians and compared it to Jonathan’s 2011 pledge to serve only one full term.

He questioned the credibility and enforceability of the party’s decision, particularly if the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, eventually emerges as the candidate and wins the election.

According to him, there would be no guarantee that such a candidate would remain bound by the party’s zoning arrangement after assuming office.

“So, what happens if Obi changes his party, assuming he wins, or as leader of the NDC, he gets the NEC of the party to reverse the decision, if in the unlikely event he wins?” Keyamo asked.

He further argued that the decision underestimated Nigerians’ intelligence and reflected the opposition’s growing uncertainty ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

“This is an insult on the sensibilities of Nigerians; it smacks of outright desperation and actually accentuates the dilemma of the opposition as a whole in the 2027 presidential elections.”

Keyamo dismissed the move, insisting that it lacked seriousness and amounted to political fraud.