2027 Election Will Be Referendum On Tinubu – Udenta

A political strategist and founding national secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prof. Udenta Udenta, has warned that President Bola Tinubu’s quest for a second term in 2027 will face a stern test, describing upcoming election as a “referendum” rather than an aspirational campaign.

Speaking on Arise News Channel’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Tuesday morning, Udenta argued that the Tinubu administration has already had ample time to prove itself, and Nigerians will judge his record ‘harshly’.

“The critical problem is that Tinubu’s second term is going to be a referendum. It will not be an aspirational moment in which, ‘oh, this is what I am going to do for the country, I’m a newcomer in the game, I’m fresh,’” he said. “Four years is enough time for the country to assess him, to say, ‘you are coming back in 2027, this is the scorecard.’”

Udenta pointed to the economic hardships that have followed Tinubu’s key policy decisions, including fuel subsidy removal and naira floating, as evidence of the administration’s shaky performance.

“Two years plus, after the economic shocks of naira floating and subsidy removal, the land is still ravaged by poverty, hunger and insecurity,” Udenta noted.

He warned that if former President Goodluck Jonathan were to emerge as the opposition’s candidate under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tinubu’s path to victory would be severely complicated.

“If Jonathan is to be a candidate of the opposition party, especially by the PDP—he was the last president of that party, it is going to be a tall order for the president and his team to win, for the simple reason that the country will run in your term, and that term is going to be a shabby term of office,” he said.

According to Udenta, this explains the unease among Tinubu’s allies and the push to legally bar Jonathan from contesting again in 2027.

“That being the case, it is better to shut down the conversation quickly, to declare the former president possibly, constitutionally debarred from contesting, and then to create a sense of chaos and order within the ranks of his party (PDP),” Udenta added.

He also said the APC structure is an inorganic structure and not a structure deep rooted in people, “that is from ground-up, it is an elitist party, just a top 1-10 per cent parading themselves as leaders across the country, even PDP with some difficulties within the years has enormous structures maybe even more than the APC because it is deeply birthed in people since 1998.”