In a sharp rebuttal, a prominent All Progressives Congress (APC) figure, Osita Okechukwu, has countered former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s dismissal of zoning as a political principle. Okechukwu, a founding member of the ruling party, declared that labeling zoning as counterproductive is nothing short of a refusal to accept reality.
The former Director General of Voice of Nigeria expressed dismay over Atiku’s comments, pointing out that the former VP himself has been a key beneficiary of the zoning arrangement in Nigerian politics. Okechukwu posed a pointed question: was it not the zoning convention that paved the way for Atiku’s vice presidency? He also reminded Atiku of his hasty departure from the PDP presidential primary in 2014 after Goodluck Jonathan clinched the ticket—a move that eventually led him to the APC.
Okechukwu lambasted Atiku’s argument that a southern opposition candidate would struggle to unseat a sitting southern president, calling it a regression to identity politics—the exact ailment zoning aims to cure. He noted that such rhetoric is unbecoming of a statesman.
Furthermore, Okechukwu took issue with Atiku’s calculation that by 2027, the South would have held the presidency for 18 years compared to the North’s 10. He accused Atiku of selective amnesia, citing the over 40 years of northern dominance since independence in 1960. Okechukwu stressed that equity cannot be dissected using convenient numbers; it demands a holistic view.