A member of the opposition coalition, Kenneth Okonkwo, says President Bola Tinubu will win if the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presents a southern presidential candidate like Peter Obi as its flag bearer in the 2027 election.

The actor-turned-lawyer said that to unseat Tinubu, the ADC coalition should present a northern political heavyweight in the toga of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, ex-Sokoto governor Aminu Tambuwal, among others.

“My strategy this time around is that I am going to support a northerner in 2027,” Okonkwo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

“It must be a northerner that the whole north is willing to support.

“If the whole north is willing to support an Atiku, why not?

“If the whole north is willing to support a Tambuwal, why not? The person must be qualified, and if he has experience in the presidency, it is an added advantage, and when he puts up something from the south, that will push him through,” he said.

Interestingly, Okonkwo was one of the spokespersons for Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, but he parted ways with the former Anambra governor and dumped the Labour Party in July 2024 over the party’s internal squabbles and Obi’s failure to address them.

Tinubu, who trounced his closest rivals, Atiku and Obi, in the 2023 poll and assumed office in May 2023, is seeking re-election in 2027 to complete the country’s eight-year unwritten rule on rotation of power between the two major regions of the country – the southern and northern regions. Before Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military general from the North-West zone of the country, was in power between May 2015 and May 2023.

On Tuesday, Okonkwo said Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has “become incurably bad and we want to terminate his incumbency”.

“Anybody telling you it’s injustice if the north comes in, if the south comes in, and whoever wins in a primary election will take it for four years. Where is the injustice? It has happened before.

“Anybody telling you to bring a fresh southerner to compete against Tinubu, a southerner, is trying to tell you to zone the ticket to Tinubu and Tinubu will win outright,” Okonkwo said.

He said since the APC is presenting Tinubu to be its flag bearer, the opposition coalition must present a northerner to challenge him.

“If you bring somebody from the Southeast, even if he wins, they will steal it from him.

“Let me tell you the strategy that will make the Southeast man to be president. Do you know the South-West has never contested an election against an incumbent? Strategy? Because they know that in Nigeria, if you don’t have the establishment supporting you, even if you win, they will steal it from you.

“Peter Obi won the election in 2023, and they stole it from us. If you do it again, they will steal it from him because there is no incumbent to back you, but if you bring somebody from the north, nobody will prevail on him to leave his victory because he is not from the same side as you,” he said.

Ahead of the 2027 polls, talks about an inter-party alliance reached a climax on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, when opposition arrowhead Atiku Abubakar, alongside Obi, ex-Senate president David Mark, ex-minister Rauf Aregbesola, ex-minister Rotimi Amaechi, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, amongst others, adopted the ADC as the platform by the opposition coalition to oust incumbent Tinubu whose administration has been accused of mismanaging the economy, with all-time high inflation and unprecedented cost of living.

The coalition is banking on the numerical strength of the votes recorded by Atiku and Obi in the last poll. In 2023, Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party’s Obi came second and third respectively with combined votes of over 12 million, more than four million above the total votes recorded by Tinubu who was declared the winner by electoral umpire INEC.

The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, says she will be re-elected if she decides to run for the same seat in the National Assembly come 2027.

The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs was a guest on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm programme aired on Tuesday.

The Labour Party (LP) senator said, despite the opposition of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, the people of Abuja would re-elect her if she decides to run.

In July 2024, Wike had said 71-year-old Kingibe won’t return to the red chamber in 2027.

However, Kingibe, on Tuesday, said she would win with a landslide if she ever decides to run in the next poll.

The female lawmaker said, “I know that I will win in a landslide victory, bigger than the last one. The last one, bear in mind, that I went to the Senate with one of the highest, if not the highest votes of any legislator.

“And it was not just about (LP Peter) Obi. Yes, he brought some votes, but I also brought some votes to him that would not normally go to him.”

Kingibe alleged that the people of Abuja resent Wike, former Rivers State governor, who was appointed FCT minister by President Bola Tinubu in August 2023.

According to her, the minister has so far treated the people of the FCT with disdain and contempt.

“The local government election is going to tell whether Wike controls the FCT because nobody does.

“It’s only people who have lived here for a long will know that the people of the FCT have their independent minds.

“People who live here will know that the one thing that unites us in the FCT is the resentment of the minister,” she said.

Kingibe added that Wike has given Tinubu a bad image and should not have been appointed a minister of the FCT.

Kingibe and Wike have been caught in a long-drawn brawl since they assumed their respective offices in June and August 2023. While the former belongs to the opposition Labour Party (LP), the latter is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but works with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has cautioned Nigerians against placing hope in political coalitions, describing such arrangements as unrealistic within the country’s electoral system.

Speaking during the House of Representatives Open Week in Abuja, Senator Akpabio stressed that only political parties—not individuals or coalitions—are legally empowered to contest elections.

According to him, the idea of one person belonging to two political parties simultaneously is both deceptive and impractical.

The senate president’s comment followed the opposition coalition’s meeting on Wednesday, 2 July, in Abuja, where the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was adopted as its official platform for the 2027 elections.

The coalition named former Senate President David Mark as interim national chairman and ex-Osun governor Rauf Aregbesola as secretary.

Coalition leaders gathered at the venue of the meeting on Wednesday, July 2, 2027
The high-profile meeting saw attendance from several former and serving politicians, including Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, Dino Melaye, Dele Momodu, Gabriel Suswam, Ireti Kingibe, Emeka Ihedioha, and Sadique Abubakar—alongside former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.

The Senate President also addressed what he called misplaced expectations placed on lawmakers by the public. He clarified that the core responsibility of legislators is to make laws, not to embark on infrastructure development projects.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, announced progress on the ongoing constitutional amendment process.

He revealed that 10 per cent of seats in both the Senate and the House would be reserved for women, while 5 per cent would be allocated to persons with disabilities.