A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dan Ulasi, has warned that divisions among opposition parties could make it difficult to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Ulasi said the opposition was more fragmented than it was before the 2023 election, arguing that political parties seeking to unseat Tinubu must learn from their previous mistakes and stop underestimating his political strategy.
He spoke on Friday during an interview on Arise Television’s The Morning Show, where he also discussed reported disagreements within the Nigeria Democratic Congress, the party of former Anambra State governor Peter Obi.
Ulasi said he had cautioned opposition figures before the 2023 election against assuming that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar would easily defeat Tinubu.
“In 2023, I said on this platform that if anybody takes President Tinubu for granted, you’re doing it at your own peril,” he said.
Recounting an opposition meeting held before the election, Ulasi said some participants, including governors, had expressed confidence that Atiku would win.
He said he challenged their optimism, asking what the opposition had done on the ground to justify such confidence.
“When governors were saying, ‘You have won, you have won already,’ I said, ‘You must be jokers,’” he recalled.
According to Ulasi, he was asked to leave the meeting after questioning the claims but was later invited back after Atiku intervened.
He said he had challenged those at the meeting to identify the electoral groundwork that would guarantee victory over Tinubu.
“What have we done on the ground to show that Atiku will win?” he asked.
Tinubu eventually won the 2023 presidential election, while Atiku, who contested on the PDP platform, finished second and Obi, then the Labour Party candidate, came third.
Ulasi said the outcome should serve as a lesson for opposition leaders ahead of the next election, particularly as disagreements and competing political interests continue to complicate efforts to build a united front.
“And we went to that election. What happened? Tinubu won. And we are again in another cycle of election. Like you rightly said, the opposition is so fragmented now, worse than it was in 2023,” he said.
Assessing the opposition’s chances in 2027, Ulasi argued that defeating the President would require an extraordinary effort if the current divisions persisted.
“As things are on the ground, it will take some magic for anybody to stop Tinubu,” he said.
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