Atiku’s camp blasts Onanuga over Tinubu must complete two-term claim

A heated political exchange has again broken out between the camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Presidency following statements from a senior aide to President Bola Tinubu suggesting that the incumbent “must complete eight years” in office before power returns to the North.

The fresh political skirmish over rotation was triggered by remarks made by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga.

Onanuga had invoked the North-South power rotation convention to argue that the South must retain the presidency until 2031, having succeeded a northern president who served two terms.

His comments were a reaction to an interview Atiku gave on Arise News Channel on Wednesday.

The comments drew an immediate and pointed response from Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar.

In his reaction, Shaibu dismissed the power rotation argument as unconstitutional, anti-democratic and driven by fear of a credible opposition.

Taking to his X handle, Shaibu challenged the legal and moral basis of Onanuga’s position, insisting that no presidential aide had the authority to reduce Nigeria’s democracy to a regional entitlement arrangement.

“Power rotation is a political convention, not a constitutional decree — and certainly not a tool to silence credible opposition,” he wrote.

Shaibu accused the Presidency of hypocrisy, arguing that those now championing rotation had themselves ignored zoning within their own party when it suited their interests.

“The same people who shredded zoning within their own party when it suited them now pretend to be its custodians. Hypocrisy has never worn such a cheap costume,” Shaibu said.

He also pushed back against the suggestion that zoning cost Atiku the 2023 presidential election, attributing that outcome instead to what he called institutional interference and electoral irregularities.

“The 2023 election was not lost because of zoning. It was lost through a toxic cocktail of state-backed interference, institutional compromise, and electoral irregularities that Nigerians have not forgotten,” he wrote.

Shaibu further took issue with any political reference to the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua as justification for arguments about rotational equity, describing such reasoning as morally indefensible.

“Invoking the unfortunate passing of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as a political excuse in 2026 is not just disingenuous — it is morally bankrupt,” he said.

On the central question of Tinubu’s tenure, Shaibu said, “The notion that Tinubu ‘must complete eight years’ is the most anti-democratic statement anyone can make in a constitutional republic.

“Presidents are not crowned for eight years — they are elected, and they can be voted out. That is the essence of democracy your camp seems to have conveniently forgotten.”

He also defended the opposition’s coalition-building efforts, dismissing Onanuga’s comments about Peter Obi’s reported departure from the African Democratic Congress as evidence of panic within the ruling camp.

“You don’t dictate who joins or leaves a coalition — you only expose your fear when you try. If your government had anything solid to campaign on, you wouldn’t be busy hallucinating cracks in the opposition.

“Atiku does not need your permission to run. He does not need validation from aides who confuse loyalty with noise.

“And come 2027, it will not be aides, nor propaganda, nor recycled talking points that decide Nigeria’s future — it will be the Nigerian people. And they are watching. Closely,” he said.