Politics

2027: How coalition can stop Tinubu – Osuntokun

Published

6 months ago

August 11, 2025

Chief Akin Oshintokun, 63, former political adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo; director of the Presidential Campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in 2011; and director-general of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council of the Labour Party, LP in 2023, in this interview, shares his thoughts among others on socio-political happenings and permutations ahead of the 2027 polls, and avers that without a united opposition President Bola Tinubu would be re-elected.

The polity is witnessing defections across party lines. Won’t it hurt the 2027 elections?

That is a platitude. Any trend towards one-party dictatorship is not good, especially for an inherently pluralistic country. The reason for this is rooted in what we call ‘zero-sum politics’ where the winner takes all and the loser loses all. It prioritises patronage and consumption politics over a positive correlation between reward and productivity.

The major facilitator of this culture is the prevailing quasi-unitary casino economy. The embodiment of this insidious system is the over-centralisation of power in the executive, otherwise known as the presidency. If you have a president as we currently have (and the one before him) who is prepared to test the dysfunctional limits of the constitution, what you get is a leviathan, and what follows is the phenomenon of state capture. In other words, all the other organs of government, the legislature and the judiciary, are subordinated to the president.

It certainly impoverishes the political party system because it is a precursor of one-party dictatorship. These defections are also a reflection of total loss of faith and confidence in the capacity of the electoral agency and the judiciary. If these two bodies have integrity and credibility, no complainant would feel compelled to be in the good books of the president to get justice.

At the other end, there are the unpopular candidates who would require the president’s support to get them into office. The other name of this state capture is one-party dictatorship. It is the logic of this trend that is playing out in the anomie of political leaders absconding from their parties to grovel at the feet of the president.

This is bad behaviour, quite alright but it is realistic and practical. The president, as it were, has an arsenal of powers to promote, thwart and frustrate the political aspirations of any other player. The president is like Father Christmas who is invested with all the goodies to share as he wills. And he is a magnet for all manners of economic supplicants, especially the greedy ones. This is why the race to clinch the presidency is akin to a mad stampede, in the pursuit of which aspirants would take no prisoners. This is why it is the most destabilising factor of Nigerian politics

What is the root cause of the Labour Party crisis?

The roots of the crisis lie in the divergence of aspirations between the illegal Abure national party executive and the Peter Obi writ large army called the Obidients. The former is the rough and ready mercenary with the mission to exploit the party for filthy lucre while the other largely consists of reform-minded young progressive Nigerians.

Ultimately, the crisis hacks back to the reality that Nigeria is bereft of a viable political party system. What we call parties are no more than special purpose vehicles, SPV, for contesting elections. They are ideologically indistinguishable and that is why their boundaries are so porous such that upwards of 60 percent of those who founded the APC were PDP functionaries. With specific regards to the Labour Party, the Abure national executive has effectively become the agent

Do you think the LP stands a chance in the 2027 elections?

There is nothing like a viable Labour Party without Peter Obi. So maybe you need to rephrase your question as, is Obi a viable candidate in the 2027 presidential election? The answer, of course, is a conditional yes. Now, you know that there is a difference between winning elections and being declared as winning the election in Nigeria. The viability of his aspiration is conditional on such other factors as the vulnerability of a fractious opposition. If the opposition parties can pool together to present Obi as their presidential candidate, then Tinubu may be on his way out of the Aso Rock villa.

It is, however, a different ball game altogether for the president to accept defeat. I can’t see through the thick fog of a scenario in which he would accept any result other than his declaration as a winner.

What is your take on the state of the nation?

Nothing captures contemporary Nigeria more than (a state of) anomie and political dysfunction. In the short term to mid-term, the one-size-fits-all all prescribed cure (deregulation of the downstream oil sector and floating of the forex market) had stabilised the economy literally at the expense of unbearable immiserisation of the vast majority of Nigerians. For them, it is a cure worse than the disease.

Please get me right, there is nothing peculiar in the experience of socio-economic crisis. Every individual and society are routinely confronted with economic and other standard of living challenges. It is how you grapple with the challenges that matters. It is the extent to which there is closure of the gap between what you say and what you do, that matters. If you are splurging hard- earned Nigeria income on the criminal opulence of the power elite while compelling Nigerians to live on less than one dollar a day, you are increasingly pushing the country to the tipping point.

When you preach the sermon of salvation while indulging in wanton hedonism, the result is the stress and distress written all over the faces of the under-privileged; the permanence of massive security breakdown of law and order with emphasis on the Middle-Belt region. The late Professor Sam Aluko once characterised it as “the rich cannot get to sleep because the poor are hungry and angry.” Unfathomable and profuse nation bleeding corruption has become normalised.

Most hopeless of it all is that rather than agree on requisite constitutional reforms, factions of the rogue elite are deadpan and unyielding, waiting impatiently for their turn at ceasing and bleeding Nigeria by the jugular. The tragic reality stares us all in the face, and its depredations are worse than fiction.

What is your take on the coalition-backed ADC?

Coalition-backed ADC? Well, the ADC emerged from a political movement floated by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2018 called the Coalition of Nigeria Movement. At its transition from a pressure group to a political party, the former president withdrew his participation to preserve his non-partisan statesmanship. He, however, made the exception of the governorship race in Ogun State in 2019, where he backed the aspiration of Nosiru Isiaka.

So this is the history of ADC until it became the beautiful bride of leading opposition figures like Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, and others in this electoral cycle. If these personalities successfully band together and stand behind one of them, then they are in business. It may be reminiscent of the intervention of the APC in 2015.

Do you think the coalition can stop APC and Tinubu in 2027 general election?

This will depend on a number of intervening variables. One is that the economy continues to nosedive with all it connotes for the vast majority of Nigerians. Remember Bob Marley reminded us that a hungry man is an angry man. The other is the difference between former President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent president. As Jonathan conceded defeat, you could see a sigh of relief in his mien. He radiated the kind of serenity that bordered on inner joy. It was not just because he had a recessive personality, It was also because his political career is a study in effortless grace.

He did not exert himself to become deputy governor, governor, vice-president, and finally president. The manifestation of this grace was so conspicuous as to make Christiane Amanpour of the Cable Network News, CNN, ask him whether it was down to his unique first name, Goodluck, that had been at play in his rise to the presidency. To the contrary, Tinubu got to his present office by sheer grit and mastery of the political jungle culture of survival of the fittest. He was prepared to realise his objective through means, fair, and foul. Remember the proponent of the political philosophy of “snatch it, grab it and run with it…power is not served a la carte”

What is your assessment of President Bola Tinubu on insecurity, infrastructure, and good governance?

First, I think we need to establish the volume of the debt that has been contracted and the income derived from oil-pursuant to expenditure on capital projects, and what the financial gatekeepers tag cost-benefit analysis. If you borrow ten million dollars to execute a project of one million dollars, this is infrastructure development, but how would you characterise such an expenditure? There is also the question of priorities. Given our huge infrastructure deficit, I do not understand the logic, for instance, of the prioritisation of the thirteen billion dollars Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. It makes sense only if it’s utility is to serve as a conduit for misappropriation of public funds.

Nonetheless, one has to acknowledge the effectiveness of the deregulation of the forex market and the companion downstream sector of the oil economy.

There is however a lot of credibility in the pervasive speculations of massive corruption being perpetuated in the public sector. If morning shows the day, the daylight robbery of gifting one of the most expensive SUVs to national legislators is a marker. My friend and brother, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, is doing his level best, but our security crisis has become a basket case, this inherited crisis is of a magnitude that would readily overwhelm anyone relatively new to that office.

The crisis will likely remain unresponsive to the best of efforts until the security architecture is deconstructed and decentralised. Over and above these assessments is the fact that Nigeria is afflicted with systemic failure.

The meaning of this failure is that no aspect can be successfully isolated for remedial attention. Such is the logic of circularity. There is an integrated linkage between the security aspect and the economic downturn. There is a linkage between infrastructure collapse and the prevailing economic recession and vice versa.Nigeria only stands the chance to succeed in overcoming these challenges when the nature of this national crisis is comprehended as a circular systemic failure-in need of a shock therapy intervention. The kind of therapeutic intervention that compels itself is a constitutional overhaul that gives Nigeria the opportunity for a sociopolitical renewal. There is, of course, the option of a revolutionary intervention with the potential collateral damage of a violent upheaval. There is the inevitability of Jack Kennedy’s admonition that those who make peaceful change impossible makes violent ones inevitable.

Some say that Nigeria is now more divided than ever before. What is your view?

This has become a cliche but it is substantially true. There are micro subnational identity crises spouting all over the place, including the intriguing political decoupling of Hausa-Fulani identification. The Hausa, we are told, are now engaged in a nationalist reawakening against Fulani imperialism. We are told that this is particularly the case with the enduring anarchy in Zamfara state.

Will the agreement to do one term make Atiku or Obi more likely to beat Tinubu?

I’m very sceptical about this kind of political bargaining. In the case of Atiku (a very generous father figure), other than physical debility (he is over 80 years), I have no basis to believe he would stick by any such commitment. If he could repeatedly defy the principle of North/South power rotation, why would a personality of this pedigree stick to any such unenforceable commitment?

With the present political trend, no region, especially the Islamic North, will agree to any such agreement once their man secures the throne.

In my reckoning, the North/South rotation subsists until 2031. Given this notion, the pledge of Obi to restrain himself to a single term is more believable and enforceable. Coincidentally, the putative aspiration by former President Jonathan fits the bill squarely. Even if he is inclined to renege on such a pledge, the constitution completely rules him out of a second term. Besides, I doubt he has the stomach for the roforofo fight inherent in Nigeria political power play.

What is the way forward for the country?

I have earlier reiterated constitutional reform as the way forward in the short, mid, and long-term. I can see no other peaceful options. If we agree in principle for a new constitution, the details will follow in quick order. If only wishes are horses. Given the deep division within, I hope, rather than expect this option to become a reality any time soon. President Tinubu should be the last bus stop on this nightmarish journey to an unknown destination.

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Politics

PDP faction slams candidate withdrawals in FCT elections as ‘anti‑democratic’

Published

1 day ago

February 20, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

A faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed “utter dismay” over the withdrawal of some of its chairmanship candidates from the forthcoming Abuja Local Council elections, calling the move “anti-democratic in every sense.”

The party also warned that it reflects a troubling trend in the party’s leadership.

In a Friday statement on its social handles, the National Working Committee of the party said: “The National Working Committee of the Party @OfficialPDPNig has received with utter dismay the news of the withdrawal or stepping down of some Chairmanship Candidates of our Party from the forthcoming Abuja Local Council elections.”

Describing the development as a symptom of a broader problem, the party accused some leaders of fostering what it termed “voodoo democracy.”

It read, “As sad as this development is, it is a pointer to the type of voodoo democracy promoted by those parading as leaders of the PDP, whose only interest is to ‘hold’ the party for the President.”

The statement also warned that such actions could foreshadow attempts to manipulate presidential elections.

It continued, “This is exactly what they intended to do to Nigerians, when close to the Presidential elections, they can compel, induce or cajole all the other candidates to step down or withdraw for the President to have a smooth sail back to Aso Rock Villa, despite the abysmal performance of his administration.”

The PDP said it had previously acted against such behavior within the party: “It was for ignoble, reckless and shameless acts like these that we excommunicated them from our party, in order to rebuild a strong opposition party, prepared for a struggle to return to power by 2027.”

The statement concluded with instructions for voters: “Furthermore, voters should go to the polls prepared to protect their votes and ensure that Presiding Officers transmit Form EC8A immediately after announcing the result at the polling unit.”

The press release was signed by Comrade Ini Ememobong, MNIPR, National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party.

PDP chairmanship candidate for the Bwari Area Council election, Julius Adamu, on Wednesday withdrew from the race in favour of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Joshua Musa.

The stand-down, marked by a show of supporters and political heavyweights, took place on Wednesday in Bwari, where FCT Minister Nyesom Wike was present.

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Politics

Aiyedatiwa vs Tunji-Ojo: Political cold war sparks killings, violence in Ondo state APC

Published

1 day ago

February 20, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

In line with the directive of the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, congresses to elect party officials at the ward, local government and state levels were scheduled for February and March this year.

However, concerns are mounting that the exercise in Ondo State could be marred by crisis amid a perceived supremacy battle between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, popularly known as BTO.

The alleged battle for control of Ondo APC took a deadly turn on Wednesday when two people were reportedly killed and five others injured during violent clashes at the ward congress in Odode-Idanre, the headquarters of Idanre Local Government Area. The incidents occurred as the ruling party conducted congresses across its 203 wards in the state.

The unrest is believed to be a spillover from Tuesday’s disruption at the party secretariat in Akure, where suspected hoodlums stormed a stakeholders’ meeting and assaulted party leaders.

Among the victims was Raphael Adetimehin, younger brother of the state APC caretaker chairman, Ade Adetimehin, who sustained machete wounds after attackers allegedly mistook him for his brother due to their resemblance. Eyewitnesses reported that his vehicle was set ablaze before he was rushed to the General Hospital in Idanre, where he remains in a coma.

By party tradition and structure, the governor is widely regarded as the leader of the party at the state level, just as the President occupies that position nationally. As a minister appointed by the President, Tunji-Ojo technically falls within that federal hierarchy.

However, recent developments suggest that the Ondo State chapter of the APC has quietly split into two blocs — one aligned with Governor Aiyedatiwa and the other with the Interior Minister.

Although neither Aiyedatiwa nor Tunji-Ojo has openly acknowledged any rift, subtle signs of tension have fuelled speculation. At the recently concluded 50th anniversary celebration of Ondo State, both men publicly displayed cordiality. A viral video showed them exchanging warm embraces at the Government House in Alagbaka. They also sat side-by-side at the grand finale held at the Akure Township Stadium, where Tunji-Ojo represented President Bola Tinubu. At least outwardly, there was no visible sign of animosity.

Behind the scenes, however, party sources claim the minister has been playing an increasingly influential role within the state chapter. Tunji-Ojo is said to have cultivated strong ties with party elders and stakeholders, providing financial support and attending to their needs — gestures that have reportedly earned him loyalty and reverence among some members. He is also believed to be coordinating various support groups working for President Tinubu’s re-election across the state.

Some beneficiaries of the minister’s outreach have allegedly accused Governor Aiyedatiwa of not doing enough to strengthen party structures, despite being the state’s chief executive.

The alleged rivalry came into sharper focus on Tuesday when political thugs invaded the APC state secretariat in Akure during a pre-ward congress stakeholders’ meeting. The attackers reportedly assaulted several party leaders, including the state chairman, Ade Adetimehin; the Ondo State representative on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Otito Atikase; former Sports Commissioner Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye; and former Water Resources Commissioner Yetunde Adeyanju, among others.

In the aftermath, allegations emerged from some quarters that the governor’s camp orchestrated the disruption, claiming he had not approved the timing of the meeting. However, no official confirmation has substantiated those claims.

The former commissioner, Adeyanju, who was allegedly rough-handled by the thugs said, “The thugs came and were shouting, ‘we are from Aiyedatiwa.’ They specifically mentioned Aiyedatiwa, that ‘Aiyeatiwa sent us. We don’t want congress in Ondo State. The governor is in charge. The governor is the leader of the state and the governor is in charge. Nobody can query the authority of the governor and anybody that wants to talk about congress in Ondo State will be assassinated. If you talk about congress in Ondo State, you will be assassinated.’ They said that Aiyedatiwa owned the state, so, nobody should talk about congress.

Corroborating Adeyanju, the state party chairman, Adetimehin said, “The chairman of the committee (from Abuja) said we should hold a stakeholders meeting today (Tuesday). We both agreed to hold the meeting by 12pm. Then we sent this out for all of us to attend. Then I told the governor that I heard from the grapevine that some people were mobilising to the secretariat to destroy the meeting. He said no that such a thing cannot happen under his watch, that he would take charge. He (Aiyedatiwa) said he would caution anybody behind it, but 30 minutes later, the place was invaded with thugs, with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons. They beat hell out of all the leaders and members, except those who are for them. They beat me and dragged me on the floor; they took away my two phones and money from my pocket, with my wristwatch.”

However, Governor Aiyedatiwa denied any involvement in the disruption. The stakeholders’ meeting was eventually held later on Tuesday evening at the party secretariat — albeit in the absence of the state chairman.

The governor maintained that supporters of various aspirants were responsible for the violence, insisting he had no hand in the attack. He further clarified that the earlier gathering which was disrupted was not an officially recognised stakeholders’ meeting.

“But this one was an impromptu stakeholders’ meeting because of the congresses at the ward and local government levels. As he said, the meeting was shifted to 2pm because it was initially fixed for 10am and I said I would not be able to make it at that time. Later on, I got a call from one of them saying there were some problems around, or some miscreants around the party secretariat. I asked him to call the Commissioner of Police, and I also called the Commissioner of Police to ensure the place was protected because I was going to attend the meeting.

“I asked that security operatives be deployed to protect the place. Later, I got to know that some miscreants, who had sympathy for one aspirant or the other, those who are contesting for one position or the other, were moving around and trying to create some kind of fracas among them, which led to some disturbances.”

A chieftain of the party and Director-General of the pro-BTO group known as the Grassroots Movement for Tinubu, Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye, confirmed the internal crisis in the state APC relating to the governor and the minister, but blamed the governor for not managing the situation well as the leader of the party in the state.

Yusuf-Ogunleye, who was a former Commissioner for Sports in the state, alleged that Tunji-Ojo had been taking care of the party after it was abandoned by the governor. According to him, the gesture had earned the minister significant popularity, leaving the governor jittery.

He stated, “Let me tell you, there is what is called an inferiority complex. When the governor abandons the party — the people who brought him into power — it is BTO who steps in to take care of them. For instance, during the last Christmas period, when the governor was distributing rice to every local government, the rice was delivered to and received by political office holders and not party members.

“The party was abandoned, and it was BTO who brought rice and gave 20 bags to each ward, irrespective of affiliation. He is not shunning the party; he is taking care of it. But the governor is not happy about it because he (Tunji-Ojo) did not allow party members to suffer.

“If not for BTO today, there would be no APC in the state. That is the truth. That is why you see all the party leaders on his side. But the governor is not comfortable. They are saying BTO wants to become governor. You (Aiyedatiwa) have not even spent a year in office. You still have about three years in this tenure. Why not concentrate on governance and build the party? As a governor, why are you beating your party people? More than 17 party leaders are in different hospitals in the state now after the attack yesterday (Tuesday). Why resort to violence?”

On the contrary, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor declared that Aiyedatiwa remained the leader by virtue of his position as the state governor and that he had been carrying everyone along in the spirit of fairness while playing a strong leadership role in the party.

He denied any rift between his principal and the minister.

“The governor is the leader of the party and father to all party members. He has always provided leadership that embraces all groups and interests in the party since he became governor. He is the first governor in the history of the state to hold quarterly stakeholders’ engagements with party leaders, and this has fostered unity and a sense of belonging in the APC in the state.

“On the crisis in the ward congress in some parts of the state, the pockets of issues recorded have nothing to do with the governor, and that is why he called on security agencies to restore order at the party secretariat on Tuesday. The governor has also called on security agencies to investigate the crisis that took place in Idanre earlier today (Wednesday) and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

“He has also appealed to all aspirants contesting for party positions to call their followers and supporters to order as his administration will not tolerate any breakdown of law and order in any part of the state,” he stated.

In the same vein, the state Commissioner for Information, Idowu Ajanaku, said there was no rift between the governor and the minister, adding that as leader of the party in the state, Aiyedatiwa has provided effective leadership and fostered unity among members.

“I am not aware of any crisis anywhere, the governor is the party leader , no argument about that,” Ajanaku said.

In a situation like this, one would naturally ask about the role of the party elders, who had previously claimed to be unaware of the matter.

However, it now appears they acknowledge that there is crisis brewing within the party and have promised to intervene, particularly concerning the attack on the secretariat on Tuesday.

The chairman of the elders’ forum, Pa Erastus Akeju, said, “This dichotomy between BTO and the governor is new to us; we were not aware of it. It has not been brought before the elders. BTO has not reported to us that the governor is after him. The governor has not reached out to us to say that BTO is challenging him.

“We are just waiting for an opportunity to see what is really happening. You see, when there is no report of violence or disagreement — physical disagreement, I mean — we cannot simply go to the governor and ask, ‘Are you quarreling with BTO?’ or ask BTO, ‘What is between you and the governor?’ We would be told, ‘Nothing.’ So it is only now, as the issue has escalated publicly into a physical confrontation, that we can say, ‘All right, it’s time for the elders to intervene.’”

A political affairs analyst, Lanre Alewa, described the cold war between the governor and the minister as unhealthy for the ruling party, particularly with the general election fast approaching. He also stressed the need for the two APC chieftains to rein in their supporters, whom he described as the major cause of the crisis.

He said, “The minister and the governor were together at the recent 50th anniversary celebration of Ondo State. They were on the podium together, and the minister visited the governor at the Government House. They were visibly together. So, some people may claim they are fighting, but I have not seen anywhere that the minister directly accused the governor, or the governor directly accused the minister.

“At times, these political jobbers, who call themselves supporters, cause such issues. They must be called to order by their principals so they do not destroy the party.

“They just go out into the streets and act as they please. You cannot ascribe that to the governor or the minister — that would be wrong. I have not heard either of them say anything to that effect. However, if such a dispute exists, the national leadership should intervene and settle the matter amicably.”

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Politics

Kanu’s freedom, Igbo presidency possible through alignment with Tinubu – Cubana Chief Priest

Published

3 days ago

February 18, 2026

Newsbreak365_Admin

Popular socialite and businessman Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, has called on the people of the South-East to support with President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections in order to secure the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Reacting on Wednesday to a viral video where a South-East monarch urged the President to either release Kanu or return him to Kenya, the celebrity barman praised the monarch for taking the message directly to the seat of power.

He noted the monarch’s physical presence in Abuja was necessary to ensure the President heard the plight of the South-East.

Writing in Pidgin, Cubana Chief Priest wrote, “God bless you, Your Royal Highness for partaking in Nigeria. If Your Highness did not participate in Abuja, how Asiwaju wan take hear this message. If to say dem no record this video play for una, them for call his royal highness sell out say him don go collect money.”

He urged the region to “align” with the current administration rather than maintain a stance of opposition, saying, “Alignment is key, we no fit fight government, Asiwaju go free MNK. His Royal Highness don put am for Baba body. Let’s get along with Nigeria.”

The socialite further urged the South-East to reconsider its political stance ahead of the next elections, stating that Tinubu won the 2023 election without significant votes from the region.

Addressing the 2023 elections, he reminded his followers that President Tinubu emerged victorious without the majority of the South-East vote, suggesting that a repeat is likely in the future unless the region changes its approach.

He also suggested that active support for the current administration could be the “best stake” for the Igbo people to eventually produce a president.

He wrote, “Last election, Tinubu won without South-East, it’s clear he will win again. So why not give him the votes so he can do what we ask of him in return.

“Hopefully, he will hand over power to an Igbo man. He made Buhari president, a Hausa man. He made himself, a Yoruba man president. What makes you think he won’t make an Igbo man president if we clearly support him for one more term?

“Igbo best stake is on Asiwaju. Just think it out. Man has the best political structure in the country to win election make we no waste our votes.”

PUNCH Online reported on Tuesday that a traditional ruler from the South-East, Dr Lawrence Agubuzu, the Eze Ogbunechendo of Ezema Olo Kingdom, urged Tinubu to release Kanu, or return him to Kenya, where he was arrested, warning that his continued detention was fuelling agitation among youths in the region.