A former deputy governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Olujimi, has said the rhetoric deployed by Peter Obi in 2023 will not stop President Bola Tinubu being re-elected in 2027.
Mrs Olujimi, a former senator who represented Ekiti South District from 2015 to 2023, spoke when she appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Thursday night.
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2023 election
During the 2023 general election, Mr Obi, the then presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), came third in the poll amid huge support from many Nigerians.
Many attribute his performance to his eloquence during the campaigns ahead of the last election.
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But Mrs Olujimi, during the TV programme, said the technique would not pose any threat to Mr Tinubu’s reelection in the 2027 election.
“The rhetoric of the last election will not work again (in 2027), except he comes with another gimmick. And you see, this (Tinubu) is a politician, a man who knows the terrain well,” she said when asked about Mr Obi’s chances.
The senator, who recently defected to the APC from PDP, said it would be difficult to beat Mr Tinubu in 2027 given the president’s political experience.
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“This is the first time we are having a dyed-in-the-wool politician as president. He knows his onions; he knows all of us. He has been in the system for very long. It’s tough.
“This is a man who has worked with everyone, who has been useful to everyone, who has had opportunities to assist governments. Beating him? Uphill task,” she said.
‘Why I joined APC’
Mrs Olujimi, who served as the deputy governor of Ekiti State from 2005 to 2006 under the PDP platform, explained that she joined the APC because the party’s leadership is now pragmatic and resolute.
When reminded how she criticised the APC in the past, the former deputy governor said: “The APC we talked about in the past, the government that was in power then, is not the current one in power. There is a different APC now.
“This government is pragmatic. It’s resolute, it’s taking tough decisions and running with the decisions. It’s not like other governments – taking tough decisions and when people start to complain, dropping it and making them comfortable again, going back to the old ways.
“Rather, it’s taking the bull by the horns and moving on, and that is what I saw in the new APC. I am telling you that it is this government that made me join the APC, not any other.”
Mrs Olujimi said she left PDP because the party lost traction, pointing out that she would rather leave PDP than remain in the party and work against it.
‘ADC has no structures’
Mrs Olujimi said she did not consider joining the African Democratic Congress (ADC) because the party was not properly anchored.
The ADC was recently adopted as the platform for the Opposition Coalition Group ahead of the 2027 general elections.
But the former senator said the ADC lacks the required structure to win elections.
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“ADC could not have worked for me. All the leaders there are my friends and my leaders.
“But it is not properly anchored. The structures are not there,” she said.
Mrs Olujimi said she would have preferred that such a coalition happened in the PDP “where the structures were very distinct and clear” for election victory.
“But nothing like that happened. I would now go from number two to number five and then start looking for structures at the unit level, at the ward level, at the local government level, and at the state level, when the primaries for the presidential election are just around the corner,” she explained.
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