Atiku Abubakar


Abubakar Atiku's emergence as PDP' presidential candidate in violation of its constitutionally enshrined zoning and rotation policy is still generating ripples and warnings to electorate from Southern Nigeria to ignore him at the polls.


According to the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu,  Atiku Abubakar used his  “muscle”, to make  the party jettison its rotational policy. He predicted that the South would resist Atiku in 2023.


“It’s not as if rotation is a new thing. So, for the PDP, because of Atiku’s muscle, they jettisoned the rotation of the Presidency which was an injury to himself. Some of us in the South will forbid him because he touched on the ligament that is holding the country.


"We commend the northern governors because they recognised the importance of that ligament. You may not take it seriously, but if you know the sense of belonging it brings to the North and South you can’t just dismiss it.


"Rotation may not have a legal backing, but it is a convention, having its moral angle. Atiku will not know what he did to himself until the day the votes come. Atiku has lost in the Southern part", Okechukwu maintained


 In a related development, former Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose had  demanded that a Southerner must succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.


Fayose, in a tweet, said it is the turn of the Southern region to produce a president.


He wrote: “The PDP Constitution provides for a rotational Presidency. Section 3(c) provides that the party shall pursue its aims and objectives by adhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices, in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.


“The current President of Nigeria is a 2-term Northern Presidency, thus implying that it must be a Southern Presidency in 2023 or nothing.”

Writing in Yoruba language, Fayose also tweeted that “awa South lo kan” — which means, “it is the turn of the South”.

The former governor added that Nigerians should “await details soon”.