2027: Atiku Lost 25% Of Key Supporters, Peter Obi Lost 55% – Bwala

Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has claimed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lost the support of governors and other key political allies who backed his presidential bid in the 2023 election.

Bwala made the claim during an appearance on Channels Television on Wednesday, while assessing the political landscape ahead of the 2027 presidential election. He also argued that the support base around Tinubu is stronger than it was before the 2023 election.

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According to Bwala, Atiku has lost about 25 per cent of the key figures who supported his previous campaign, while the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has allegedly lost about 55 per cent of the people who played significant roles in his 2023 campaign.

“Atiku Abubakar lost close to 25 per cent of key people that you know around him. All the governors who worked for him at that time are no longer with him,” Bwala said.

“Peter Obi lost 55 per cent of the critical people that carried his campaign; they’ve all disappeared. And some of them went to Atiku, some of them went wherever they could go to,” he added.

Bwala consequently expressed confidence in Tinubu’s chances in 2027, saying the political support surrounding the President is now considerably different from what existed before the 2023 election.

The presidential aide also defended Tinubu’s recent assertion that Nigeria had moved away from the “doldrums” towards prosperity. He argued that the President was not suggesting that Nigerians would immediately become prosperous, but was referring to government programmes and interventions that he said were already benefiting citizens.

Bwala cited beneficiaries of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), subsidised healthcare, infrastructure projects and support for small and medium-sized businesses as examples of what he described as prosperity reaching Nigerians.

“One million families whose children have benefited from the NELFUND programme, what they are benefiting is called prosperity,” he said.

“If you go to an environment or a place where there have been no roads or any form of infrastructure, and we have established infrastructure there, what has come to them is prosperity,” Bwala added.