2027 A Two-Horse Race Between Tinubu, Atiku, Says Momodu
Ovation Magazine publisher Dele Momodu has projected the 2027 presidential election as a straight contest between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, effectively writing Labour Party’s Peter Obi out of his reckoning for the next race.
Momodu made the assertion in a statement titled “Time for National Reconciliation, Re-Orientation & Reconstruction,” which he shared on his X handle on Monday. He framed the coming contest as a duel between the incumbent and the African Democratic Congress standard-bearer.
“The 2027 Presidential election is expected to be a major fight between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his biggest challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. It promises to be the battle of the Titans,” he said.
The veteran journalist, himself a chieftain of the ADC, acknowledged that a third-force movement could surface ahead of the polls, as happened in 2023, but argued that such a platform would lack the strength to displace the two leading figures. “A third force, hopefully, may show up, like it did in 2023, but not with enough fire power and tenacity to upstage, and obliterate, the two elder statesmen,” he stated.
His position effectively sidelines Obi, who finished third in the 2023 presidential election and remains a leading voice in the opposition. The remarks align with Momodu’s earlier interventions. Last month, he pushed back against calls for Atiku to step down for Obi, saying, “I will support my Atiku. You are disrespecting people by even suggesting that he should step down for Obi; it’s an insult.” He has repeatedly warned that Nigerians are confusing “internet excitement” with “electoral structure,” stressing that elections are won through numbers and political organisation rather than online sentiment.
Momodu also cautioned the opposition against underrating Tinubu. He noted that the incumbent remains politically strong, particularly in the North, and still wields significant electoral influence and institutional power, adding that Tinubu’s northern support base played a major role in his 2023 victory and could prove decisive again in 2027.
Beyond his electoral projections, the Ovation publisher urged the ADC to reposition itself as a bridge between Nigeria’s old political order and emerging leadership, calling for a blend of veteran politicians and technocrats to strengthen national cohesion. He charged the party to change the traditional way of playing politics by becoming “a link between the old and modern, conservative and cosmopolitan tendencies, veteran politicians and technocrats in government.”
He further warned that unmanaged ethnic and religious tensions could deepen the country’s political strain, pressing for a return to issue-based politics. “The North and the South will reunite in a game of ethnic and religious rivalries. The present combustive tensions, and absolute chaos, cannot be allowed to continue. It will consume all of us,” he said.
Momodu rounded off by lamenting the erosion of ideology and statesmanship in Nigeria’s democracy, calling on political actors to embrace reconciliation and revive value-driven leadership in the mould of founding figures such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, and Obafemi Awolowo.