The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu will win re-election in 2027 if major opposition candidates fail to unite.
Duke said divisions among leading opposition figures could split the anti-government vote and give Tinubu an advantage, similar to what he described as the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
READ RELATED STORY
Ex-aide tells Makinde to drop presidential bid, let Tinubu rebuild Nigeria
What Tinubu did during 6-day Lagos stay before returning to Abuja
Ondo Air Force crash: cause unknown, Tinubu orders investigation
The former Cross River State governor made the remarks on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday while discussing the prospects of opposition candidates ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
According to Duke, the separate presidential bids of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), among others, could fragment the opposition vote.
He argued that a divided opposition would struggle to defeat the ruling party.
“We don’t understand what we’re doing. If 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,” Duke said.
Reflecting on the 2023 election, he said opposition votes were spread among Atiku, Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, who contested under different political platforms.
“In 2023, we fragmented, and all the major opposition came from PDP. You had Vice President Atiku from the PDP. You had Peter, Labour at the time, and you had Kwankwaso. They fragmented,” he said.
Duke attributed the difficulty in building a common opposition platform partly to what he described as the “large egos” of the major contenders.
He said some of the leading opposition politicians appeared confident about their chances in 2027 but warned that their confidence could prove misplaced if they failed to work together.
“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,” he said.
Duke added that he did not foresee any of the major opposition candidates emerging victorious if the opposition remained divided.
“If I look at a crystal ball, what I see in that crystal ball is not them. I see another horror coming up,” he said.
When asked whether his prediction meant Tinubu would win the 2027 presidential election, Duke responded, “Absolutely.”
