THE Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that the factors that propelled Labour Party candidate Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election will not be sufficient to guarantee success in the 2027 polls.
Speaking during an interview yesterday, Keyamo argued that Obi’s performance in the last election was driven by three demographic elements he believes are unlikely to remain influential.
“Three demographic factors delivered Peter Obi in 2023, but all three will collapse,” he said.
“The other candidates were Muslims, and so there was only one Christian candidate, and the Christians went to one candidate.
“The South-East felt cheated, so the South-East went to one point because of the Igbo man.”
The third factor, he noted, was the emergence of a youth-driven movement.
He said, “The Obidients, young Nigerians who felt they were angry, they wanted a younger person and all of that because the other candidates were older than him (Obi).”
However, Keyamo, a senior member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), insisted these factors would no longer carry the same weight in 2027, especially if Obi joins forces with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in an electoral alliance.
He dismissed the chances of such a coalition making a meaningful impact in the North, where he said the APC maintains strong grassroots structures.
“If you make Obi the presidential candidate, he won’t break into the North. We have structures, we have governors, we have control,” Keyamo said.
While acknowledging that opposition efforts help keep the ruling party on its toes, he concluded that the electoral math is not in Obi’s favour: “They are going nowhere in terms of demography… the numbers are not looking good for them.”