Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has expressed confidence that President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) will maintain their dominance in northern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking during a televised interview on Sunday, Keyamo downplayed the political threat posed by a potential alliance between opposition figures Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, suggesting that the APC’s entrenched political structures in the North give the ruling party a decisive edge.
“The APC has deep-rooted networks in the northern region that opposition candidates cannot easily penetrate,” Keyamo stated.
He further dismissed the emerging coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which aims to unite key opposition leaders in a bid to challenge the Tinubu administration in 2027.
“They’re going nowhere in terms of demography,” Keyamo said. “The numbers are not looking good for them. What they are trying to do is bring Peter Obi and Atiku together to beat our over eight million votes from 2023—but that strategy won’t work.”
Keyamo argued that Obi’s strong performance in the 2023 election was driven by three main factors: his appeal as the sole Christian presidential candidate, support from the South-East, and a youth movement frustrated with older politicians. He claimed those demographics would no longer hold if Obi were to join forces with Atiku as a running mate.
“If Peter Obi becomes a vice-presidential candidate, those three demographics collapse,” he said. “He won’t be able to penetrate the North, where APC already has governors and strong grassroots structures.”
President Tinubu, who defeated Atiku and Obi in the 2023 presidential election, is expected to seek a second term in 2027 in line with Nigeria’s informal power rotation between North and South.
However, political tensions have intensified following the announcement of an inter-party alliance under the ADC. On July 2, 2025, prominent opposition figures—including Atiku, Obi, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, Rotimi Amaechi, and Nasir El-Rufai—endorsed the ADC as a common platform to unseat Tinubu.
The coalition is banking on the combined strength of Atiku and Obi, who together garnered over 12 million votes in 2023, outpacing Tinubu’s officially declared total by more than four million.
The opposition move comes amid rising public dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s administration, which faces mounting criticism over economic mismanagement, soaring inflation, and a record-high cost of living.
