2027: I have preference among opposition leaders, but they don’t know arithmetic — Onaiyekan
Onaiyekan warned that allowing multiple opposition candidates to split votes against the ruling party could enable the incumbent government to win by default. The post 2027: I have preference among opposition leaders,…
Cardinal John Onaiyekan, former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, has long been an outspoken voice on Nigerian governance and electoral matters, frequently weighing in on political affairs despite his clerical status. His comments come against the backdrop of an opposition landscape widely seen as fragmented, with multiple parties and aspirants positioning themselves ahead of the 2027 general election rather than coalescing around a single candidate to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The "vote-splitting" concern Onaiyekan raises echoes a recurring pattern in Nigerian elections, where a divided opposition has historically allowed an incumbent or dominant party to win with a plurality rather than a majority. Both Vanguard and Tribune Online report that Onaiyekan has a personal preference among opposition leaders, though neither outlet indicates whether he named the individual publicly. What remains unreported is any detail on which opposition figures or parties he believes are failing to grasp the electoral "arithmetic" he describes, or what concrete steps he is proposing to unify the opposition before 2027.