The Presidency has declared that there is no chance former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi can defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, made this assertion during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Thursday, stating that the president’s achievements will speak for him in the coming elections.
He added that the APC doesn’t see the coalition of opposition politicians floated on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a threat.
He said, “They are free to form alliances, but as far as the APC is concerned, we are not seeing them as any threat… If you merge Peter Obi and Atiku, there is no way the two of them can beat a Bola Tinubu and Shettima ticket. It is going to be impossible.”
Onanuga also slammed the coalition, saying “they are jumping the gun; it is not yet time for politicking.”
Tinubu supports freedom of speech and freedom of expression. He doesn’t have any hand in the challenges they are facing in the ADC. He was not even in Nigeria when the internal problems they are facing started.
Speaking on the strength Atiku and Obi pose as being part of the ADC, Onanuga replied, “Atiku has been in the race more than Tinubu and Obi.
He has tried several times to become president, but he always fails at the gate. If you look at the configuration and geography of our country, the last time Atiku came out, he was trying to whip up the sentiment of ‘I’m your son,’ and the South rejected him. If you have an Obi that you want to use as your running mate, that fact doesn’t mean you will get the exact votes you would get when he vied for president.”
Tinubu is doing a lot of good for the North. In terms of appointments, he has appointed people from the North-West and North-East into good positions, and I think in politics, a good turn deserves a response from people who are beneficiaries of Tinubu’s government.
There is a lot of noise all over the place, and it doesn’t tally with the reality on the ground. People are benefitting from the Tinubu-led government, and at the right time, Tinubu will tap into that — people under him have enjoyed.