2027: Tinubu Will Win Again if Atiku, Obi Remain Divided — Donald Duke

Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate and former Cross River State governor Donald Duke has warned that President Bola Tinubu is likely to secure re-election in 2027 if leading opposition figures Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi fail to unite.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday, Duke said the continued split in the opposition vote between Atiku (of the African Democratic Congress) and Obi (of the Nigeria Democratic Congress) risks repeating the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, which ultimately favoured Tinubu.

Duke argued that the opposition would struggle to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress if the major contenders insist on running separate campaigns.

He partly blamed the difficulty of building a common platform on what he called the “large egos” of the leading aspirants.Drawing a comparison with the United States, he said: “We don’t understand what we’re doing.

In the United States, which is the system we’ve largely just copied verbatim from, they have two major parties. If you fragmented the Democrats, for instance, into two or three other parties, the Republicans will remain in office forever.

That’s what we’re doing.”He recalled how the opposition vote fractured in 2023, with key candidates emerging from the Peoples Democratic Party fold: “In 2023, we fragmented, and all the major opposition came from the PDP. You had Vice President Atiku from the PDP. You had Peter, Labour at the time, and you had Kwankwaso. They fragmented.”

Duke was dismissive of the current optimism among some opposition leaders. “These guys, the big ones you’re talking about, they’re preparing for inauguration. They think they’re going to win. I have news for them. They’re not going anywhere. If I look at a crystal ball, what I see in that crystal ball is not them. I see another horror coming up.”When asked directly whether this meant Tinubu would win in 2027, Duke replied: “Absolutely.”

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