By Gloria Drealomalicha
The Labour Party National Vice-President, South-West, Abayomi Arabambi, has described former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the only serious contender capable of challenging President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Arabambi made the claim on Thursday during an interview on TVC’s Politics Tonight, where he discussed the evolving political landscape ahead of the next presidential poll.
According to him, while Tinubu remains the incumbent, Atiku is the only opposition figure he currently considers capable of mounting a serious challenge against the President.
“We have a sitting president that is one, and we have only one contender against the president. The only contender we have that I know is serious to slug it out with the incumbent is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,” he said.
Arabambi, however, ruled out the possibility of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), contesting the 2027 election.
He described Obi as more of a commentator on national issues than a politician preparing to seek the presidency.
“When you look at Peter Obi, you know that one, for every reason known to Nigerians, is just the chief content creator,” Arabambi said.
The Labour Party chieftain also criticised Obi over his frequent use of statistics when commenting on national issues, alleging that some of the figures he cites have later been found to be inaccurate.
“He’s a man who comes with all manner of statistics that you now find out to be false,” he said.
Arabambi further claimed that Obi was not preparing to contest the 2027 presidential election, insisting that those leading the opposition movement were aware of his alleged position.
“He’s not contesting, even their leader knows Obi is not contesting. All of you are going to replay what I said today. He’s not contesting. He knew why he went out there,” he added.
On the issue of zoning, Arabambi said the presidency was currently regarded as being in the South and argued that the region should be allowed to complete its eight-year tenure before power moves to another part of the country.
“But for now, the presidency has been zoned to the South,” he said.
He also recalled that Atiku contested the 2023 presidential election after former President Muhammadu Buhari completed his eight-year tenure but lost the election to Tinubu.
“In 2023, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came out to say he wanted to run after the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians, in their own opinion, said, ‘Let’s give it to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As far as I’m concerned, the South need to complete our eight years,’” Arabambi said.
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