By Dickson Okafor
Johnny Ucheaga, former National Administrative Secretary of the defunct National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), has said the inability of the opposition to settle for a single candidate has cleared the path for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election in 2027. According to him, a divided opposition cannot defeat an incumbent president.
The legal practitioner expressed confidence that the recent planned alignment by some key political figures to present a single candidate against President Tinubu would fail. He noted that the absence of a strong, united opposition to confront the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) means there will be little real contest in the next election.
Ucheaga also criticised the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, for beginning his campaign on a wrong note by promising to restore the fuel subsidy. He described the pledge as an attempt to reverse the landmark economic achievements of the current administration. He further commented on the appointment of Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo as President Tinubu’s Campaign Director-General in Anambra, the blockade of Peter Obi’s convoy in Benue State, the Federal Government’s suspension of official visits to South Africa over xenophobic attacks, and the lifting of the U.S. visa ban by President Donald Trump. He also spoke on the disagreement between the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over the Rainbow Coalition, among other national issues.
Nigeria has suspended all official visits to South Africa following the recent killings of two Nigerians in Johannesburg. At the same time, a U.S. court has scrapped President Donald Trump’s visa ban affecting Nigerians and 74 other countries. Don’t you think that if the nation’s infrastructure is fixed, Nigerian youths will no longer “japa”?
Yes. Nigeria’s infrastructural decay and corruption have set us backward, and that is why young Nigerians are migrating to other countries. Before the killing of these two Nigerians in South Africa, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had already officially petitioned the African Union over xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other Africans by South Africa. He demanded action from the African Union against South Africa. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa designate, also expressed shock over the reported murder of Bishop Michael Taiwo Fakunle by assailants in Johannesburg on September 4. On the visa ban by President Donald Trump, it was politically motivated. Most migrants are workers who tend to vote for the Democrats, who are major employers of labour. Trump did not want more citizens of other countries migrating to the United States, which is why he introduced the ban. The United States is a lawful country where the three arms of government operate independently; that is why the court was able to override the visa ban.
With the ongoing 2027 presidential election campaigns, the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) has dissociated itself from the Rainbow Coalition of the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike. Don’t you think internal crisis in the ruling party could undermine issue-based and violence-free electioneering?
The ongoing disagreement between the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over the Rainbow Coalition, an umbrella body formed by Wike to support President Tinubu’s re-election, should not be turned into bitterness. The declaration by APC governors after their meeting in Abuja that the party would not support, endorse or join any alliance capable of undermining or weakening President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 did not go down well with the National Working Committee. However, with the intervention of President Tinubu, the matter has been settled with the appointment of Nyesom Wike as Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council in the FCT and Rivers State.
The disagreement arose while President Tinubu was on vacation in France and was essentially a supremacy clash. Wike has insisted that his support for Tinubu begins and ends with the President’s re-election and does not automatically extend to APC candidates in the governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections. He has also made it clear that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will field candidates in other elections. These are normal features of electioneering as provided for in the Nigerian Constitution. We are still developing and learning the tenets of democracy. Nigeria gained independence 66 years ago, and for most of those years we were under military rule. Even the United States had practised democracy long before its independence on 4 July 1776. Compared with Nigeria, there are still many lessons for us to learn, even though we have done better than many other African countries. Some African countries that also gained independence in 1960 are still grappling with challenges similar to those Nigeria faced between 1966 and 1970.
I therefore expect politicians to adhere to the ground rules of issue-based and violence-free electioneering. Meanwhile, it is unfortunate and disrespectful for Atiku Abubakar to refer to the number one citizen of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, simply as “Bola.” He owes Nigerians and President Tinubu an apology for not addressing the President properly.
INEC has released the final list of presidential candidates, including the leading contenders, Tinubu, Atiku, Obi and 15 others, after the Supreme Court’s recent judgment disqualified some aspirants. Don’t you think legal battles may affect the 2027 general election?
The 2027 general election will be peacefully conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Those whose names are not on the list of candidates of registered political parties should sort out their issues. Nigerians are not necessarily clamouring for a change of government; what the masses want are competent leaders who can transform the country and meet their needs. Politicians all over the world engage in trash-talking during campaigns; it is part of the game. After the verbal exchanges, you often find the same politicians sharing drinks at events. It is their supporters who take the insults too seriously and sometimes resort to physical fights.
Politicians promise what they cannot deliver simply to win votes, and after election they pursue personal interests. This happens worldwide. Followers should learn that when politicians say “no,” they do not always mean it. As for fresh legal battles hindering the election, there is none that can stop the 2027 general election from holding. No amount of campaign promises will bring a new government in 2027 because Nigerians are becoming more comfortable with the ongoing economic reforms of the present administration. I believe the benefits will trickle down further in a few years if President Bola Tinubu is re-elected. The alliance by opposition parties to present a single candidate has collapsed, with the Atiku and Obi camps rejecting the plan.
Do you still believe a divided opposition can defeat the APC next year?
With what is on ground in preparation for next year’s presidential election, I do not see how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can be defeated. There is no strong opposition. All over the world, ruling parties are defeated by coalitions of opposition parties, not by a divided opposition. It was the merger of opposition parties in 2015 that produced the All Progressives Congress (APC) and defeated the then-ruling PDP. Former President Goodluck Jonathan became the first incumbent president to be defeated in Nigeria’s political history. There is effectively no presidential contest in 2027 because there is no vacancy in Aso Rock. This is not the first time I am making this declaration. I told you in two previous interviews that without a strong, united opposition, President Tinubu will be re-elected. In a democracy you cannot stop anyone from running; sooner or later they discover they ought not to have entered the race.
Many people bought forms, mobilised and spent huge sums of money only to later announce they were no longer running. Those are the “also-rans.” The presidency is not an ad-hoc project; it requires serious planning. The real questions are: Did you plan? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Have you put forward a clear proposition of what a president should be?
With the appointment of Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as Director-General of President Tinubu’s campaign in Anambra State, and the resolve of governors in the region to re-elect Tinubu, coupled with the blockade of Peter Obi’s convoy by thugs in Benue State, don’t you think Peter Obi’s chances in 2027 are slim?
It is unfortunate that for the second time in 17 months the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, had his convoy blocked from travelling from Makurdi to Yelwata in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State while trying to sympathise with survivors and families of victims of a massacre. Forty-six of the suspected thugs have been arrested, and the police are making efforts to arrest more. It is wrong to prevent a presidential candidate from accessing any part of the country, especially during the campaign period. Every Nigerian aged 18 and above has the constitutional right to vote for any candidate of his or her choice. South-East governors can support whoever they want, but they cannot force the people to vote for any particular candidate.
Peter Obi’s chances remain bright because in politics anything can happen until INEC announces the results.
But Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have contested for the presidency before and will be on the ballot again in 2027. Haven’t they put forward a presidential proposition?
They have, but Atiku Abubakar has contested the presidency seven times and has never won. Peter Obi is running for the second time; he did not win in 2023. If they truly wanted to give President Tinubu a serious contest, the opposition should have presented a single candidate. A divided opposition cannot defeat President Tinubu in 2027.
Opposition parties have described the Federal Government’s proposed 30-day petrol discount as a return of subsidy through the back door and a temporary relief designed to win the 2027 presidential election. Don’t you think this decision was prompted by Atiku’s renewed promise to restore the subsidy if elected?
The proposed 30-day fuel discount is part of measures to cushion the effects of subsidy removal. It is not a design by the ruling All Progressives Congress to win next year’s election, as alleged by the opposition. Citizens had been calling on government to ease the hardship caused by subsidy removal, and the government has heeded those calls. Atiku Abubakar, the ADC presidential candidate, has also promised to implement the Oronsaye Report of 2012 (corrected from 2019 in original). But I cannot guarantee that he will fulfil all his campaign promises if elected. The timing of any call to restore the fuel subsidy is wrong. Nigerians have already endured the pains of subsidy removal and are beginning to reap the benefits. There are no longer queues at filling stations across the country. State governments now pay salaries, pensions and gratuities as and when due, something made possible by the revenue from subsidy removal. Nigeria can now refine its crude oil through the Dangote Refinery, unlike before when we exported crude and imported refined products at subsidised rates. Atiku’s promise to restore the subsidy is simply a campaign tactic to attract votes. Nigerians will not take him seriously because he was vice-president for eight years and none of the public refineries worked during that period, nor was any private refinery established until Dangote came on board.
Starting a campaign by promising to restore the fuel subsidy is like going back to Egypt after the landmark economic achievements recorded through subsidy savings in the last three years.
There are fears that the 2027 general election will not be peaceful, free and fair. What must Nigerians do to make their votes count next year, as was done in the Osun State governorship election?
The 2027 general election will be peaceful, transparent, free and fair, and the results declared by INEC will reflect the will of the people. Why shouldn’t Nigerian voters ensure their votes count in 2027 just as the people of Osun did recently? The people of Osun are Nigerians. Elections had been conducted and leaders elected in this country long before Osun State was created. The game-changer in Osun was that the Accord Party fielded a popular candidate who performed well in his first term, and the people decided he should continue.
After winning, Governor Ademola Adeleke went and thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What does that tell you? It is not in the Constitution that an opposition winner must thank the President, yet he did. Remember that President Tinubu, at about 2.00 a.m. on Sunday, 16 August, before the results were formally announced, called Governor Adeleke and congratulated him, saying the people of Osun had spoken and given him a mandate for another four years.
At the inception of this administration, President Tinubu told Nigerians to vote him out if he failed to provide steady power supply by the end of his first term. Surprisingly, the same government that has not fully fixed electricity has now promised that Nigeria targets 80 per cent electricity access in a five-year plan to power industrial growth if re-elected. Don’t you think this may also be an empty promise?
Would you say, in your right mind, that there has been no improvement in electricity supply in the three-and-a-half years of this administration? The infrastructure is there for all to see across the states and the FCT. Many of these facilities were dead before this administration revived them, including electricity generation and supply.
Even in the northern regions affected by insurgency, banditry and Boko Haram, the Tinubu-led administration has constructed infrastructure. Landmark achievements have been recorded in the fight against insecurity. In Rivers, Bayelsa and other South-South states where pipelines pass through previously inaccessible areas, illegal bunkering has been curtailed. We had a major problem under the late President Muhammadu Buhari. He was a good man, but he was sick. During his eight years, some of those he trusted betrayed him. He was the type who, once he gave an assignment, did not constantly check up on you. Many people took advantage of that free hand. Funds meant for public service were diverted into private mansions, businesses and personal empires, some of which have now been recovered.
It is much easier to build new structures than to restructure old ones. When this government took over, it had to take inventory of how bad things were, and resources were limited. The nation’s finances are better now. Housing estates that had been appropriated by individuals are being recovered and returned to society. The government is turning Nigeria’s fiscal reform pains into real gains.
The masses are asking where Nigeria’s subsidy dividend went after government claimed it saved ₦15.8 trillion and still borrowed ₦11.9 trillion. The APM has petitioned the EFCC and the National Assembly over an alleged “missing” ₦12 trillion subsidy. Isn’t this an indication that the Federal Government is careless with our commonwealth if the allegation is true?
As a lawyer, I will not interfere in an allegation that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is investigating and which the National Assembly will also examine. These are allegations. When the institutions complete their investigations, we will know the truth. You must first investigate to know how much each state governor is collecting as monthly allocation. Four years ago, how much was going to each state? In the last two years, how much is going to the states from the Federal Government? Today, states no longer owe workers’ salaries, and governors are commissioning roads and other projects regularly. I see states and government agencies commissioning projects almost daily, something that was not common before. The most important factor of production is good roads. When you construct roads, people with capital buy land nearby to build factories, industries and houses. Land values appreciate, workers earn salaries, and that is how economies thrive. You can see many projects being commissioned across various states, including my home state of Abia, because governors are receiving significantly higher allocations from the Federal Government through savings from the fuel subsidy. Look at the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road: about 47 km has been completed and people have already started using it.
With the ongoing presidential election campaigns, governors are under pressure to list the projects they have constructed with the trillions of naira allocated through FAAC from subsidy savings. Do you think the governors can account for these huge amounts as Nigerians await relief?
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) is the federal agency responsible for sharing allocations among the three tiers of government. With the commencement of the presidential election campaigns, state governors, including the Minister of the FCT, are being compelled to give account of the allocations they collected from FAAC in the last three years. The projects executed with those funds are what the President and the governors will use to campaign. It is time for accountability and probity in the management of public funds appropriated by elected officials.
The post Divided opposition can’t defeat President Tinubu in 2027 –Ucheaga, chieftain, defunct NCPN appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.