A former presidential adviser and founding National Secretary of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prof. Udenta Udenta, has said President Bola Tinubu is vulnerable ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that any opposition ticket pairing Labour Party’s Peter Obi with a northern candidate would defeat the incumbent.
Udenta made the assertion during an interview on Sunday Politics, a Channels Television programme, where he delivered a sweeping critique of the Tinubu administration, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and Nigeria’s current socio-economic conditions.
According to him, Nigerians are worse off today than they were under former President Muhammadu Buhari, arguing that the APC lacks ideological grounding and has failed to translate governance into improved living conditions.
“There’s something in law we call the fruition of time – seasons come and seasons go,” he said. “The Alliance for Democracy was an ideological platform with clear vision and philosophical depth. APC is just a special purpose vehicle. It’s a contraption. It has no focus, no ideological bearing, no philosophical reach.”
He added that the APC “was put together to flush PDP out of power in 2015, and they succeeded in that miraculous way. But since then, they have refused to govern,” Udenta stated. “The eight years of the Buhari presidency have been considered by many as a disaster in terms of corruption, nepotism, insecurity, and aloofness.”
Assessing Tinubu’s administration, Udenta argued that, “The failures of the Buhari presidency are the failures of the Bola Tinubu presidency. The problem is that the Tinubu presidency has intensified and accelerated them to a higher degree.”
He maintained that the 2027 election would be decided not by political rhetoric but by the lived realities of Nigerians. “Nigerians are not going to listen to grandstanding. They will ask themselves: how were we on May 29, 2023, and how are we today? The answer will be resounding – we are worse off today,” he said.
Udenta dismissed government claims of economic progress, describing official statistics as disconnected from everyday realities.
“Abstract numbers on macroeconomic stability are meaningless to the people. What matters is the living conditions. Are Nigerians earning more? Are prices lower? Can they afford food, rent, and medicine? The reality is that people are bitterly hungry,” he said.
On security and economic reforms, he rejected calls to give the administration more time, insisting that its record so far is insufficient.
“That record is very shabby, to say the least. It cannot win an election,” he declared.
The political analyst also accused the government of undermining opposition parties and manipulating the political space ahead of 2027.
“If you crunch the numbers, you will see that the government is running scared. If it wasn’t, we would not have the kind of INEC we have today. The system is being choked to weaken the opposition,” he alleged.
Despite acknowledging internal crises within opposition parties, Udenta expressed confidence that they would regroup before the elections.
“Politicians sometimes move like ghosts—they regroup and find a home. Between now and the deadlines, they will find a secure platform. Once that happens, they will have enough time to rebuild and campaign,” he said.
He further argued that the perceived strength of the APC, with its control of multiple states and political structures, does not guarantee victory.
“If you have all the governors, senators, and ministers, why are you running scared? The government is running scared because 2027 will be about its record,” he added.
On possible opposition strategies, Udenta stressed the importance of zoning and coalition-building, pointing to Peter Obi as a central figure in the South.
“In the South, what is visible and manifest is Peter Obi,” he said. “The choice of a northern candidate is for the opposition to decide—whether it is Kwankwaso or others.”
He predicted, “Any pairing today of a Peter Obi in the South and anybody in the North would defeat Tinubu in 2027.”
