If President Bola Tinubu thinks that he would have an easy ride to a second term come 2027, he would have to reconsider his optimism. This is because it has become clear that he would meet with a strong opposition ahead of the next general elections.
At the head of a new coalition is Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and a former ally of Tinubu. The former vice president was one of the candidates who gave Tinubu a run for his money in 2023. In fact, as the election drew near in 2023 not a few people felt that it was an exercise for Atiku to lose. He lost it alright but by winning the same number of states as the president, losing only by popular votes.
But this time, it appears like it will be different, as Atiku is not alone. His coalition involves Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra state and candidate of the Labour Party. Obi also scored six million votes as Atiku, as against eight million votes by Tinubu. Analysts had said then that had the People’s Democratic Party, PDP not allowed Obi to leave for LP, a combination of Obi and Atiku would have defeated Tinubu. A working relationship between the two politicians gives the confidence in the opposition that Tinubu would not get a second term.
That coalition is strengthened by the participation of Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State and a strong ally of Tinubu in the preparation for the 2023 election. El-Rufai left the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC recently after he had spearheaded a campaign against Tinubu’s policies and the dearth of internal democracy in APC, of which he was a founding member. Aside from El-Rufai who can be said to be familiar with the political strategies of the president, there is also Kayode Fayemi, two-time governor of Ekiti State who was on the campaign trail of the president ahead of the 2023 polls. He, like Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State and also a founding member of the APC, was absent at the meeting and press conference held in Abuja on Thursday.
Amaechi too had been very vocal about his criticism of the administration of Tinubu. The former governor of Rivers State and Fayemi were aspirants for the APC ticket, which Tinubu won in 2022. However, Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation, SGF was there with Atiku, Obi and El-Rufai. Lawal had not hidden his rejection of Tinubu, since the president won the ticket of their party, APC, in 2022.
Shola Akinyele
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