The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu could secure re-election in 2027 if major opposition figures fail to unite behind a common candidate.
Duke warned that a divided opposition, particularly with Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) running separately, could lead to a repeat of the 2023 presidential election outcome and benefit Tinubu.
He made the remarks on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday while assessing the prospects of opposition candidates ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Duke argued that the opposition would find it difficult to unseat the ruling party if prominent contenders continued with separate presidential ambitions.
“We don’t understand what we’re doing. If in the United States, which is the system we’ve largely just copied verbatim from, they have two major parties. If you fragmented the Democrats, for instance, into two or three other parties, the Republicans will remain in office forever. That’s what we’re doing,” he said.
Reflecting on the 2023 election, Duke said the votes of major opposition candidates were split among different political platforms, weakening their collective challenge to the eventual winner.
“In 2023, we fragmented, and all the major opposition came from PDP. You had Vice President Atiku from the PDP. You had Peter, Labour at the time, and you had Kwankwaso. They fragmented,” he said.
The former Cross River State governor attributed the difficulty of achieving opposition unity partly to the “large egos” of some of the major contenders.
He said several opposition politicians appeared confident about their chances in 2027 but warned that such confidence could prove misplaced if they failed to form a united front.
“These guys, the big ones you’re talking about, they’re preparing for inauguration. They think they’re going to win. I have news for them. They’re not going anywhere,” Duke said.
Duke maintained that he did not expect any of the major opposition candidates to defeat the ruling party if they continued to contest separately.
“If I look at a crystal ball, what I see in that crystal ball is not them. I see another horror coming up,” he said.
When asked directly whether his prediction meant Tinubu would win the 2027 presidential election, Duke responded, “Absolutely.”
