Adeyeye: Buhari’s Death, Makinde’s Undeclared Presidential Ambition Won’t Affect Tinubu’s Reelection Chances in 2027

Segun James

The Chairman of the Board of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and former Minister of State for Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, yesterday stated that the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the rumoured plan by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to contest against President Bola Tinubu in 2027 will not affect the president’s reelection chances.

Adeyeye, also a former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said this in a chat in Lagos, while reacting to concerns raised by some analysts that the Buhari factor aided Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 elections and that his death would affect the president’s chances in 2027.

Buhari secured over 15 million votes in the 2019 elections in the north, a region where he enjoyed a cult followership.

A significant number of the over eight million votes garnered by President Tinubu in the 2023 elections were secured in the north.

Speaking, Adeyeye said conversations around the death of Buhari affecting Tinubu’s votes in the north were based on faulty premises.

The former minister, also National Chairman, South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), said that Tinubu did not ride on the back of Buhari’s popularity in the north to win in 2023.

He noted that the President won mainly because of the support enjoyed all over the country and by dint of hard work.

He said, “It’s not correct. Tinubu will win more votes in the north and elsewhere in 2027 than at any time ever in the history of the republic.”

Adeyeye also described as unfounded the rumour that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc within the APC had turned its back away from Tinubu.

The former National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, said that over 90 per cent of members of the group were still solidly behind the president, supporting his reelection bid.

He said that the majority of members of the CPC bloc, led by former Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and many others, had thrown their weight behind Tinubu.

“Ninety per cent of the CPC figures are with him (Tinubu), quote me anywhere. The leadership met about three or four weeks ago and said they are with Tinubu,” he added.

Adeyeye further said the president had done enough work to emerge victorious in 2027.

On the rumoured plan by Governor  Makinde to contest against Tinubu in 2027, Adeyeye said if the rumour turned out to be true, Makinde’s standing against Tinubu would not have any consequence on the president’s chances in the South-west zone.

Adeyeye noted that though the Oyo State governor was eminently qualified to run for the presidency, his purported ambition would never pose any threat to Tinubu’s re-election.

“No, it’s not. It’s not a threat at all. Absolutely not, it is of no consequence. It has no effect. People are not fools,” he said.

“Seyi Makinde is a good candidate; he is a good person, a good governor, and highly qualified; he is qualified to run for President, but he will not take a single vote out of Tinubu in 2027.

“People know who they want, and that is the way I look at it. Tinubu is going to win in all regions, and he is going to win massively.”

Adeyeye said some interests were behind the rumoured plan to pitch Makinde against Tinubu, to divide South-west votes in 2027, and likened the plan to the recognition of the National Advanced Party (NAP) in 1983, a step taken by some elements to divide the votes of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s in the South-west.

He said that those who brought out NAP’s presidential candidate, Mr. Tunji Braithwaite, to divide Awolowo’s votes during the second republic general election failed.