He made clear that the driving calculation behind the demand is the belief that a northern presidential candidate can consolidate enough of the region's voting strength to defeat the incumbent.
He went further to challenge the very structure of Nigeria's informal zoning arrangement, pointing out that since 1999 the presidency has effectively rotated only between the Northwest and the Southwest, to the complete exclusion of the Southeast, South-South, North Central and Northeast.
KHe noted that since the return to democracy, no person from the Southeast has ever become vice president, and nobody from the Northeast has ever served as president, yet two presidents have come from the Northwest and both from a single state.
According to Atiku Isa, this exclusion is not about competence but about numerical strength and political calculation, and it fuels a dangerous sense of marginalisation in the regions that are perpetually left out.
He argued that a genuine zoning policy would distribute federal power broadly enough to give every region a sense of belonging, warning that when people are consistently made to feel as though they do not matter, they will eventually fight back to prove that they do.
Atiku Isa said: "Some politicians believe that with the voting strength of the north, if a northerner is given a ticket, they will capture the entire northern region and defeat Tinubu.
But by convention, even though it's not constitutional, we have always agreed that the presidency should rotate between north and south.
Now the president, whenever it is the turn of the north, it goes to the Northwest. Whenever it is the turn of the south, it goes to the Southwest. It's just between Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba.
Since 1999, nobody . You cannot continue to insult people. When you make people feel as if they don't matter, they want to fight back to show that yes, they matter."
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