Senate Minority Leader and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart, Senator Abba Moro, has called on political parties to honour Nigeria’s informal power-sharing arrangement by supporting a southern presidential candidate in the 2027 general election.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, a programme aired on Channels Television, the lawmaker representing Benue South warned that any political group that fields a northern candidate risks being rejected by voters.
Moro said the PDP’s decision to present a northern candidate in the 2023 presidential election—former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was a miscalculation, especially coming immediately after eight years of northern leadership under President Muhammadu Buhari. Both men hail from northern Nigeria.
“In 2023, we tried to reclaim power from the APC, but we ignored the spirit of North-South rotation and chose Atiku Abubakar. It backfired,” Moro said.
He explained that Nigerians opted for a southern candidate during the last election to maintain the delicate political balance between the North and South, a move he described as upholding “the righteousness of the unwritten convention.”
With President Bola Tinubu, a southerner, currently serving his first term, Moro emphasized that the fair and logical step would be to allow the South complete an eight-year cycle before power shifts back to the North in 2031.
“Any deviation from that in 2027 may trigger political instability or voter backlash. The presidency should remain in the South to fulfill what’s right and just,” he added.
Although he did not endorse any particular candidate, Moro made it clear that respecting term limits and regional balance is crucial for national unity.
The senator also addressed the reported defection of Atiku Abubakar and his 2023 running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, from the PDP, describing their departure as a welcome development.
According to him, both figures contributed to the internal crises that plagued the PDP after its 2023 defeat, and their exit could pave the way for party rebuilding.
Moro’s comments come amid rising political activity ahead of the 2027 elections. Several opposition leaders including Atiku, Peter Obi, David Mark, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rauf Aregbesola have reportedly adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a new political platform to challenge the Tinubu-led administration.
The alliance is banking on the over 12 million combined votes that Atiku and Obi secured in the 2023 polls, which was over four million more than Tinubu’s declared total by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
President Tinubu, who assumed office in May 2023 after defeating Atiku and Obi, is expected to seek re-election in 2027 to complete what many consider the South’s eight-year turn at the presidency.
