The Labour Party has officially announced its decision to zone the 2027 presidential ticket to the south.
Labour Party’s National Caretaker Committee, led by Senator Nenadi Usman, announced on Tuesday that the party has decided to exclusively zone the presidential ticket to the south to align with the gentleman’s rotational presidency agreement.
This decision effectively ends the immediate presidential aspirations of the 2023 vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, a prominent Northerner who had recently signaled his intent to lead the party.
Earlier this year, Datti had positioned himself as a “principled” alternative to the current administration, even distancing himself from some of Peter Obi’s recent political maneuvers.
However, the new Labour Party 2027 presidential zoning arrangement renders his North-centered bid impossible within the party’s current framework.
This follows the announcement after a consultative meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Senator Usman was unequivocal about the party’s direction, stating that any Northerner seeking the presidency under the Labour Party (LP) banner would no longer be considered.
“We have one certain decision that we have taken, and that is that we will certainly not field any aspirant from Northern Nigeria. We have zoned the position to southern Nigeria,” Usman said at the event held in Abuja on Tuesday.
“So if any northerner comes now to want to contest elections, we certainly will not accept that.”
She insisted that the party would adhere to internal democratic processes, declining to name any potential candidate.
“As for who, I can’t tell you now because then it won’t be democratic anymore. Whoever the people like and vote for during the primaries… could be the candidate,” the former minister of finance said.
“To God be the glory, the case was thrown out because it lacked merit,” she noted, adding that the judge “stood on truth”.
She also spotlighted the party’s prospects for the 2027 general elections, hinting at a review of the date for LP’s upcoming congresses due to a surge in membership.
“If we go ahead to stick to that date, to my mind, we are going to disenfranchise quite several people,” Usman said.
Although the issue of zoning is not in Nigeria’s constitution, it is adopted by some political parties in the spirit of equity and fairness.
Tuesday’s decision is similar to what panned out during the 2023 general election, where the opposition party adopted a southerner as its presidential candidate.
Many parties also adopted a Southern candidate after former President Muhammadu Buhari spent eight years in office.
At the time, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the LP zoned their presidential tickets to the south, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) left it open to eligible presidential aspirants.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar later emerged as the PDP flagbearer; ex-Anambra State governor Peter Obi clinched the LP ticket, while a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, was the APC flagbearer.
Tinubu was eventually declared the winner of the keenly contested 2023 presidential poll. Atiku came second with Obi trailing behind.
