The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Festus Keyamo has downplayed a successful alliance between the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) ahead of the anticipated 2027 presidential election.
Keyamo, who spoke on Sunday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, claimed that the duo ticket would fail to hold broad demographic appeal in the forthcoming election.
He contended that the demographic factors that fueled Obi’s rise in the 2023 elections have since dissipated, especially if he enters the 2027 race as part of an alliance where he is not the leading contender.
Keyamo, however, maintained that President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) will continue to enjoy a strong political foothold in the northern region.
“They are going nowhere in terms of demography. I like what is happening; they are putting us on our toes; it is going to make us work harder, but the numbers are not looking good for them”
He specifically took aim at the opposition’s strategy, describing it as flawed and unlikely to resonate with the electorate in the current political landscape.
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“This so-called ADC, in 2027, what they are working on is to bring Peter Obi and Atiku (Abubakar) together to join those numbers and beat our over eight million votes. Let me tell you why it is wrong.
“If you make Peter Obi the deputy to Atiku, three demographic factors delivered Peter Obi in 2023, but the three will collapse.”
“The other candidates were Muslims, and so there was only one Christian candidate, and the Christians went to one candidate. The South-East felt cheated, so the South-East went to one point because of the Igbo man.
“And the third demography: the Obidients, young Nigerians who felt they were angry, they wanted a younger person and all of that because the other candidates were older than him”.
“If you put Peter Obi this time as president, he cannot penetrate the north. We have our structures in the north. We have governors and our structures in the north,” he stressed.
