Arise TV journalist Charles Aniagolu has reignited national debate over Nigeria’s zoning formula ahead of the 2027 presidential election, challenging political leaders to explain what they truly mean when they insist it is the South’s turn to produce the next president.
Aniagolu raised the issue in a post on his X handle on September 22, drawing from his recent interview with former senate president Anyim Pius Anyim. During that conversation, he confronted a long‑standing political slogan with a direct question: when politicians say it is the South’s turn, which South are they talking about?
He argued that Nigeria’s southern region is not a single political bloc and that the phrase has become increasingly vague. The South West has already produced two presidents in the Fourth Republic. Olusegun Obasanjo served eight years between 1999 and 2007. Bola Tinubu, also from the South West, won the 2023 election and is seeking another term in 2027.
Aniagolu said this pattern leaves the South East sidelined in the national power rotation. He questioned whether political actors use the word South as a polite cover for South West and insisted that Nigerians deserve clarity rather than coded language.
He also pointed out that if Atiku Abubakar can run again in 2027 despite claims that it is the South’s turn, then the zoning argument has lost its moral force. In his view, the principle has become inconsistent, selective and shaped more by political convenience than equity.
Anyim, in the interview, outlined his own view of rotation after President Bola Tinubu. He said Tinubu took the office from the South West and is entitled to a second term. After that second term, he believes power should move to the North. After eight years in the North, he said it should come down to the South East. He argued that no South East candidate can win alone and that the region must build alliances with other parts of the country. He blamed the Peoples Democratic Party for earlier failures to zone its ticket to the South East, saying that decision cost the region the sentiment it needed. He also explained why he left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, saying the APC offered a better platform for the cross‑regional support the South East needs.
Aniagolu pressed him again on the phrase the South’s turn. Nigeria’s South is not one political bloc. Obasanjo came from the South West and served eight years. Tinubu also comes from the South West and is now being asked to take another eight. That math leaves the South East waiting once more. Aniagolu argued that if South has quietly become a polite word for South West, then politicians should say so plainly.
His intervention reopened the broader conversation about how power rotation is interpreted within Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones and whether the South East has been fairly included in the arrangement since 1999.
Aniagolu’s post has sparked fresh discussion across political circles, with many Nigerians revisiting the question he posed: when leaders say it is the South’s turn, do they truly mean all three southern zones or just one?
He ended his post with a call for Nigerians to confront the truth head‑on and ignite a national conversation that refuses to hide behind vague political language.
