2027: Tinubu Will Win by Landslide If Opposition Fails to Unite – Shehu Sani Warns

 

Former Senator Shehu Sani, a top figure in the All Progressives Congress (APC), has predicted a massive win for President Bola Tinubu in the upcoming 2027 general elections—unless the opposition parties find a way to come together.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, May 8, the outspoken ex-lawmaker and civil rights activist said that the APC's position will remain strong due to the internal problems tearing opposition parties apart and the increasing number of defections to the ruling party.

“There is no way you can evict a ruling party without a coalition. It’s only on that basis that the opposition political parties can sacrifice their own individual and narrow political interests and ambition for the general good of democracy in the country,” Sani stated.

He didn’t mince words when pointing fingers at opposition parties like the PDP, Labour Party, NNPP, and SDP, accusing them of refusing to work together for the greater good.

“So far, the SDP said they are not interested in coalition. The PDP said they are not interested in coalition, and the Labor Party seems to be flying alone, and the NNPP says they are not interested in coalition. And if the opposition parties will go to the battle without an alliance, merger or any form of coalition, there is no doubt about it, that APC will have a landslide victory in the 2027 election,” he warned.

According to Sani, unity among the opposition is the only way to truly challenge the APC in 2027.

“But if they come together, they will win many seats and will make a very strong impact in the political realm. They lost the 2023 election because of lack of unity, and they are likely to lose this election if they refuse to come together. If the opposition parties refuse to come together and form an alliance or coalition, it is a done deal for us (APC),” he said.

He also criticized Nigeria’s political system for lacking real ideology, saying political parties in the country are just tools for individuals to chase personal ambitions.

“Parties are simply vehicles for people to realize their own political ambitions. If you look at all the manifestos of the party, they all look alike. So, anybody can move from any party to another party without losing anything. And the only thing is that the party differs from each other by their names and not by their own ideology or philosophy,” he explained.

On the growing wave of defections from the opposition to the APC, Sani put the blame squarely on the opposition’s inability to manage internal affairs.

“If a party is shut down against you, there’s no way you can continue to function in that party. So, it is not the problem of Asiwaju to protect opposition party and to make sure that people don’t migrate away from them, it is the opposition party themselves that need to convince and protect their members from moving to other political parties,” he said.

He particularly took aim at the PDP, saying unresolved internal crises are pushing members out of the party.

“A one-party state is a state where you have a law that prescribes one party, but this is a multi party democracy, and most of the reasons why people are living in the opposition party, is not pull back factors, but push factors. They have been pushed away because of internal crisis, the internal crisis in the PDP, and their inability to resolve it led to the situation where we are today, because this is a party that has about two national secretaries,” he noted.

The ex-senator pointed to confusion caused by a Supreme Court judgment over the PDP’s leadership dispute as a major reason politicians are losing confidence in the party.

“The Supreme Court gave judgment, but that judgment was neither here nor there. So if you have a party that has a leadership problem. The danger of you staying there is that the time for primary elections will come and you will have two factions laying claim to it. So from which of the factions are you going to collect form and fill?”

He rounded off by predicting even more defections from the PDP ahead of the 2027 elections.

“So there is a likelihood of more defections away from the PDP, because a first time governor in the PDP will not be sure whether he will be given a ticket, a senator in PDP will not also be sure whether he will get the ticket. So these are the factors that we have now, and I don’t think it’s going to change in the foreseeable future.”