The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has expressed confidence that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will secure victory in the 2027 presidential election, citing Nigeria’s demographic composition and voting data as decisive factors.
Keyamo made the assertion recently during an interview on Frontline, a public affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun State.
He dismissed claims by opposition parties that their 2023 gains could pose a significant challenge to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next general elections.
“Politics is very, very dynamic, but I can tell you this: ceteris paribus, no matter the combination the opposition brings, the demography of Nigeria favors the ruling party. It will be extremely difficult almost impossible for them to beat us,” Keyamo said, highlighting the influence of regional, religious, and generational voting patterns.
He also criticised the so-called Obidients movement that supported Peter Obi in 2023, describing it as largely overstated and poorly organized.
“The Obidients never won any election for him. Never got any 6 million votes for him. The so-called Obidient group is just a ragtag, unprepared, unorganized group. They exist only on Facebook and a few social media handles. If you count them as just popular faces of Obidient, are there more than 50 or 100? Always making Facebook posts and Twitter and all that. There are not more than 100 active ones,” he said.
Keyamo also questioned whether the churches and voters who supported Obi in 2023 would back him if he were running as a vice-presidential candidate alongside a person of a different religion.
“The greatest demystification of Atiku and Obi, especially Obi, is for them to run together. Let us strip him of that so-called myth. Let us now see whether he can gather those Christians from the middle belt up to mid-west, south-south and south-east that voted for him massively. And the churches in Lagos that voted for him. Let us see whether they will now campaign for him as vice president for another candidate from another religion. And 80-year-old candidates for another religion. Who will be his principal?” he said.
Politics Is About Exploiting Opponents’ Weakness – Keyamo
Keyamo also addressed criticisms of defections of prominent politicians to the APC, defending the moves as part of politics, which he described as a strategic game of leveraging opponents’ weaknesses.
“Politics is about taking advantage of the weakness of your opponents. So, if they are not organized, if they cannot put their house in order, if they don’t have a stable political party, if they want to steal the party from other people who own this, how can they then turn around? Is it the ruling party that will now intervene and say, because we want an opposition at all costs, we will now settle their problem for them?” he asked.
He likened such attempts to take over other parties to unlawful invasions. “When supposed grown men invade a house, attempt to take control, and a fight erupts, blaming a total bystander makes no sense. How sensible can that be?” Keyamo said.
He drew a contrast between the APC, built through internal coalition and merger, and parties like the ADC, which he described as prone to opportunistic takeovers. “In 2015, when we wanted to contest as opposition, we realized the dangers in this. That’s why they came together with their own existing parties, formed a coalition, then merged to create the APC. No stress, no controversy. It was their own property, registered by themselves. They didn’t want to fight anybody,” he said.
ADC Likely to Collapse Before 2027 – Keyamo
Keyamo predicted that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) would fail to establish a lasting political presence, describing it as a short-term platform for opportunists. He argued that the influx of defectors into the ADC was not a sustainable opposition strategy.
“They may have left the PDP and flunked the Senate to go to ADC. For me, the PDP is still the main opposition, not this ADC. The ADC is just an SPV. They just want to steal a party as an SPV, run an election, then go back. ADC will not survive the 2027 election cycle. They can’t survive. ADC cannot survive beyond 2027,” he said, warning that its members would likely return to their original parties after the election.
Keyamo maintained that blaming the APC for internal ADC disputes was misplaced. “You want to steal someone’s property; will you not be destabilized? The destabilizer comes from within their own house. Yoruba say ‘kokoro to nje efo, inu efo lo wa.’ It’s inside there. They should solve their problem and leave us alone. We are prepared. We have wooed our governors. We are ready for election,” he said, stressing APC’s party discipline.
He concluded by emphasising the importance of active participation by all party members, whether new or longstanding.
“Once you step in, you have it all right like people who have been there 100 years. You have to fight for your party, for its survival, and to win. There’s nothing like new or old members. We are all fighting for the same objective,” he said.
