Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has said President Bola Tinubu will defeat former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra Governor Peter Obi in the 2027 presidential election, even if both opposition figures form an alliance.
Fayose stated this during a live interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye, while responding to a question on whether he could go to his people in Ekiti State and convince them to vote for President Tinubu despite the current economic situation.
Responding, Fayose said there were things he could not say on live television but that he tells the President in private when he meets him.
“There is a situation that gags my mouth. Things I can’t tell the President here, when I see him, I say to him, Mr. President, this is the situation, this is what people say,” Fayose said.
He said he was no longer a small boy and would not shy away from telling the truth, adding that his value to the President lies in telling him the truth.
“Whatever God has given us today, we can’t equally finish it again. So, we’ll be irresponsible to be shying away from the truth. I’m only a value-added when he has opportunity of hearing the truth from me,” he stated
Recalling his 2019 encounter with Tinubu, Fayose said he had visited Tinubu at his Ikoyi residence when former President Muhammadu Buhari was “messing up” and urged Tinubu to join the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“I remember in 2019, I went to the current president in his house in Ikoyi when Buhari was messing up, I said, sir, why don’t you come to PDP? They will give you the ticket. He just said, Oshoko, Ayo o, and he started dancing. Egbe yi yoni, da uru,” Fayose said.
He said Tinubu told him that supporting the North at the time was the shortest route for power to return to the South, describing it as an unwritten norm in Nigerian politics. He cited the failure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term agenda as an example of such norms.
On the 2027 elections, Fayose argued that a three-horse race involving Tinubu, Atiku and Obi would favour Tinubu, and that even a merger would not change the outcome.
“Today, when you go by the book, in what way will Obi… you know, a three-way horse. Maybe I’m not putting it right. Atiku is there, Obi is there. Even if they come together, this man Tinubu will still defeat them. But let’s not say they didn’t come together. Too bad for them. Because these elections will be balkanized,” he said.
The former governor predicted a massive vote margin for Tinubu in the South-West.
“I want to give you an analysis again. I give this analysis sometimes. When I was talking already, in the South-West, South-West will come up with not less than six million difference, I’m telling you, between five to six million, write it down,” he said.
Fayose questioned the electoral structure of Atiku and Obi in the South-West, asking: “That five million, who would vote for Peter Obi and Atiku in Ekiti State, who would vote for them in Osun State, who would vote for them in Ondo State, what is their structure?”
