Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro has advised political parties to reconsider any plans to present northern candidates in the 2027 general election, warning that such a move could prove politically costly.
He made this assertion during his appearance on Sunday Politics, a current affairs programme aired on Channels Television.
Representing Benue South in the Senate, Moro attributed the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) failure in the 2023 presidential election to its decision to field a candidate from the North to succeed another northerner, a decision he said Nigerian voters strongly opposed.
During the 2023 race, the PDP nominated ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential flag bearer, aiming to replace then-incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. Both men are from northern Nigeria and had served in national leadership roles.
Moro said, “In 2023, the PDP to unseat the government of APC, decided to put its best foot forward and at that time, picked Atiku Abubakar against the code of an unwritten agreement of North-South presidency.
“It backfired.
“The majority of Nigerians at that time chose a southern candidate to fulfill the righteousness of the unwritten convention of the North-South rotation. That presidency will be four years by 2027.”
Although he refrained from naming a specific candidate he supports for 2027, the senator noted the constitutional guideline that limits a president to a maximum of two four-year terms.
“Again, it is going to present some little somersaults if, against the backdrop of what happened in 2023, you begin to tinker with the idea of getting power back to the north.
“The reasonable thing to do is: the south should produce the next president to complete eight years of the south, and automatically, even though unwritten, Nigerians will be looking up to the north to produce the next president in 2031.”
Moro further commented on the recent exit of Atiku and his former running mate Ifeanyi Okowa from the PDP, describing it as “good riddance to bad rubbish.”
He alleged that both individuals played significant roles in the internal disputes that rocked the party following the 2023 elections but expressed hope that the PDP would regain its strength and effectiveness as an opposition platform.
