• Tinubu’ll face opposition from Southeast, South-South, says ex-IPAC chief
• Okonkwo: I’ll support fresh Southerner, Northerner willing to use four years
• No amount of gang up can stop Tinubu’s re-election, says Oyintiloye
• Yakasai rallies Northern support for Tinubu’s administration
Despite the presidency’s disclaimer at the weekend that President Bola Tinubu is focused on governance and not interested in 2027 talks, the country appears divided into two halves – those for the president’s re-election and those opposed to his second term in office.
The rumblings within the polity gained some traction last week when former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai resigned from the ruling party to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP), leaving in its toll, a dust over some heavyweights yet to announce their defection to the lightweight SDP.
Amidst the callouts and denials over politicians yet to announce where to pitch their tents ahead of 2027, the leader of the SDP and the party’s presidential candidate in 2023, Adewole Adebayo, has declared that President Tinubu would be defeated and removed from office by his party in 2027.
Expressing some optimism on the chances of the party, he said SDP would roundly defeat Tinubu and his APC in 2027. “We knew that when they started sharing the spoils of office, they would all scatter. We knew that the programmes that all of them had would not work for the people, and they would lose popularity. So, we started preparing and managing our party. We have no crisis.
“When they were offering positions, we didn’t want to join them. We remained where we were. We kept talking to the people. Many more will join us as the year rolls by. It is like that. If you are consistent and you build your house and you are not distracted, and you focus on what you are doing, those who say they are experts will come back to you to work with you when their own has failed. Tinubu is going to be removed from power; that one is sure,” he said.
Adebayo stressed that the SDP is a well-organised political party that plays by the rules unlike the ruling APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that the mistakes that caused the PDP’s downfall and which are surely going to bring down the APC in 2027 have been noted and addressed by the SDP.
On el-Rufai who recently defected, he said: “He is a great talent, I respect him and he is even more honourable in our interaction. He has told us what he wants to do, but it’s not our job to tell anyone. But what is clear is that we want them. The party’s process will be fair. What we don’t do in our party is that we don’t bribe delegates and we don’t breach the rules. If you win, we support you. If you lose, we support another person. That’s our style.
“We have learnt from the mistakes of the PDP and the APC, and we are not going to allow our party to become a basket case. But everybody who said he loves Nigeria is welcome. We cannot be reading their motive. We cannot suspect them. We should believe that they are coming to contribute, just like when I joined the party.”
THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reaffirmed his resolve to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027. Wike attributed his decision to political loyalty and gratitude to Tinubu for appointing him the minister of the FCT.
Wike, who spoke on Sunday during an interactive session with journalists, said: “When someone helps you, it is only right to stand by them in return.”
He further stated that Tinubu’s support had been crucial to the stability of his political career.
According to him, his camp had initially expected the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, “to look out” for the interests of his group but the governor did otherwise.
For this reason, the minister said he sees no justification for shifting his loyalty away from President Tinubu.
Stating that Tinubu’s role in his political survival cannot be ignored, Wike said he can’t support any other candidate in 2027. “If someone remembers you when you need help, you should also remember them when the time comes. If the President had not given us this position, what would have happened to us?” he asked.
Principally, the storm gathering against Tinubu is coming mainly from the North, but a former National Legal Adviser of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), Chukwudi Ezeobika, has said the people of the Southeast and South-South, together with other regions, would not support President Tinubu and his party. He hinged his opinion on what he described as the political intolerance, bigotry and parochialism of the present administration.
Ezeobika said Tinubu, having emerged as the President “amidst doubts and unresolved moral questions as to the credibility of a partisan electoral process” by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “has failed to jettison the unpatriotic, perfidious and deeply prejudiced behaviour of his predecessor in office in the way and manner he runs his government.”
He also added in a statement issued on Sunday that the President “has once again demonstrated that political intolerance, bigotry and parochialism have become deeply rooted and fully entrenched as a well-established ideology and inherent policy of the APC.
WITH talks about coalition brewing ahead of the 2027 election, former Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign spokesman, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said he will support a fresh southerner or northerner who is willing to vacate office after a four-year single tenure. He hinged his decision on equity and fairness to both northern and southern regions of the country, in line with the unwritten rule of rotational presidency.
Giving vent to Ezeobika’s claims, Okonkwo stated this on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television, amid discussions about a coalition ahead of the 2027 election.
The Nollywood star-turned-politician based his decision on equity and fairness between the northern and southern regions of the country, in line with the unwritten rule of the rotational presidency.
“Everybody should come together. It is something that can be discussed. Who is going to do four years will influence who I am going to support because I still believe in equity and justice,” he said.
Okonkwo, who resigned from the Labour Party in February, said he was open to joining a coalition aiming to unseat President Tinubu in the next election. The lawyer described the APC government as incompetent, insisting that the opposition must form a strong alliance to wrest power from the incumbent administration in the next election.
“My game plan is simple. If the opposition is serious about taking power from this incompetent government, they must unite and act as one because that was exactly what the APC did in 2013, which helped them win in 2015. I believe in a coalition. When I was leaving, I said I was open to discussions with every group to consolidate the opposition so that we can remove this government,” he said.
But dismissing such a grand plot against Tinubu with a wave of the hand, an APC stalwart in Osun State, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, yesterday, said no amount of political gang-up can truncate the re-election of President Tinubu in 2027.
He contended that the recent defection of some APC members to other political parties was not in any way a threat to the political stability of the president and the ruling party.
Oyintiloye, who hitherto represented Obokun State Constituency in the Osun State House of Assembly, made this disclosure in a statement forwarded to journalists in Osogbo.
Describing defection as a normal phenomenon in politics, the former lawmaker said that it would be a grave mistake for anyone to think that the defection of the “so-called APC members” would affect the president in 2027. Oyintiloye averred that those who thought that the President would fail to win the 2027 election should bury such thought, adding that Tinubu has a winning strategy in his blood.
While pointing out that the long history of good relationships Tinubu had established across all the geopolitical zones would continue to work in his favour, he stated, “Leave it or take, no amount of political gang-up can stop the re-election of the president in 2027.
“Those who are gathering against him ahead of 2027 should try and study the kind of person the President is. He has the winning strategy, and he is raising men and women of goodwill across Nigeria. His achievements, political sagacity, and love for the country will speak for him now and in the future,” Oyintiloye posited.
ALSO, elder statesman and First Republic politician, Tanko Yakasai, has lauded Nigerians for their continued support and prayers for the success of President Tinubu’s administration.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Kano, Yakasai held that the steady progress and concrete achievements recorded by the administration were a vindication of the trust reposed in them by Nigerians.
“From some of the reports I received, the prices of basic foodstuffs have been coming down. Unlike what it was before now, families can now afford to buy basic food items such as rice, beans, maize, sorghum, and other eatables needed to feed their homes,” he declared.
“I was also made to understand that the cost of petrol at filling stations has been coming down. In some places, I was told that they now sell petrol for about N850 per litre instead of N1,150 in the recent past. This is good for the cost of transportation and movement of Nigerians from place to place,” he stated.
The elder statesman, who supported the Tinubu-for-President project in 2023, urged Northerners to rally around the present administration while insisting that the North was not left out in the scheme of things under the current leadership, contrary to views being held in some quarters.
The former Adviser to President Shehu Shagari and one-time National Publicity Secretary of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) also insisted that the administration’s best was yet to come, as it had lined up many developmental and people-friendly policies and programmes for the benefit of Nigerians and the North.
He enjoined Nigerians, especially the political class, to continue to contribute their quota to good governance through informed criticism and well-placed political engagements, all of which, he added, would strengthen the nation’s fledgling democracy and enrich the democratic process.
