2027: Obasanjo working for Tinubu, undermining opposition — Yoruba group alleges

A Yoruba socio-political group, the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of allegedly working to weaken Nigeria’s opposition parties in order to advance President Bola Tinubu’s reported second-term ambition ahead of the 2027 general election.

The group, in a statement issued on Sunday by its President, Akin Malaolu, claimed that Obasanjo’s recent criticism of former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was not merely an attack on the former vice president but a calculated move against the opposition coalition.

The allegation followed Mr Obasanjo’s controversial letter to former Ogun State Governor, Chief Segun Osoba, in which the former president accused Atiku of mobilising the late former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, to initiate impeachment proceedings against him while he was in office.

Mr Atiku had earlier rejected the allegation, accusing Obasanjo of remaining bitter over his role in frustrating the former president’s failed third-term agenda.

Reacting to the development, the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum argued that Obasanjo deliberately mentioned the late Na’Abba because the former Speaker was no longer alive to defend himself.

“By dragging the name of Na’Abba into his allegation, Obasanjo knows too well that the late former Speaker is incapable of a right of reply. To respond to Obasanjo, he has to be resurrected from the dead, which the former president knows is impossible,” the statement said.

The group maintained that Obasanjo’s actions should be viewed within the broader context of the 2027 political realignments, insisting that his public posture was designed to weaken opposition forces.

“Many think that the attack by Chief Obasanjo is against Atiku. Far from it. What Obasanjo did was a deliberate attack against the opposition parties in Nigeria.

“By this letter, Obasanjo has only confirmed speculations that he is working for his kinsman, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to actualise his second-term ambition,” Mr Malaolu alleged.

The group further described Obasanjo’s perceived support for Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as a “smokescreen” intended to conceal his alleged backing of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

According to the statement, leaders of the ADC coalition had consulted Obasanjo before the party was adopted by opposition stakeholders, but claimed the former president was primarily interested in securing Obi’s emergence as the coalition’s presidential candidate.

The forum further alleged that Mr Obasanjo had privately informed some South-West leaders that he would publicly withdraw his support for Obi if the former Anambra governor accepted the vice-presidential slot on the ADC ticket.

It also claimed that after failing to secure Obi’s emergence as the ADC candidate, Mr Obasanjo allegedly encouraged political defections to the National Democratic Congress, NDC, using Kwankwaso as a political incentive to lure Obi away from the coalition.

The group also alleged that the former president was discreetly collaborating with a member of President Tinubu’s family to advance the president’s 2027 re-election project, although it did not provide evidence to support the claim or identify the individual.

“It is telling that the same man who encouraged the people of the South-West to engage in pan-Nigerian politics with the return to democratic rule in 1999 has today retreated into his tribal enclave to work for a politically drowning Tinubu,” the statement added.