Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has countered the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume on his admonishment to the North to stay off the 2027 presidential election.

Akume had, in an interview with Television Continental (TVC) on Sunday, declared that northerners seeking election to Aso Rock should wait till 2031 and allow President Bola Tinubu re-contest in 2027.

“Today, it’s what I said at the convocation of Nile University, where I was given an honorary doctorate. I appealed to my brothers in the north to wait till 2031 to run for presidential election.

“It is not yet the time for the north to throw in the hat in the ring. It’s not yet the time.

“This has been my appeal to them. Let us not destroy our country because of personal ambition.

“Tinubu, as a southerner, should be allowed to have a second term, meaning that those eyeing the presidency from the north in 2027 should look beyond that year by waiting till 2031.

“If it is the will of God for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be president of Nigeria, even at the age of 90 years, he can get it, but he and other northerners, eyeing the office now, should look beyond 2027.

“But my advice, and this has been consistent, is that let us not rock the boat.

“Let us allow this power to reside in the south for eight years, and from there it will come to the north. To do otherwise, honestly, is to destroy this country.”

However, Atiku, in a reaction on Monday, queried the grounds of equity and fairness in Akume’s admonishment.

In a statement by his Media Adviser, Mazi Paul Ibe, he pointed out that the South has had more years on the presidential seat than the North, counting from 1999.

Atiku said, “Where, then, does true equity and fairness reside? By the year 2027, the South will have enjoyed 17 years of leadership — eight years under Obasanjo, five years under Jonathan, and four years under Tinubu — while the North will have experienced only 11 years, with Yar’Adua serving three and Buhari eight. This results in a disparity of six years between the North and South, casting a shadow over the balance of power.

“In any case, the power to elect and vote out their government lies firmly with the Nigerian people, entrusted to them upon the government’s ability to prove itself worthy of the people’s ballot. But has the Tinubu government demonstrated that it deserves to be re-elected? The answer, alas, is as clear as the heavens themselves — God forbid!”

Tinubu had defeated Atiku in the 2023 presidential election, even as the latter challenged the president’s electoral victory up to the Supreme Court which eventually affirmed Tinubu’s victory.

Atiku’s response may have confirmed his widely perceived desire to contest again in 2027, a contest he lost in 2007, 2019 and 2023.