During the 2023 General Election, presidential candidates of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and ex-Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, respectively, launched a wave of muck-raking against candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It’s a campaign of calumny and character assassination; multiple suits filed against him at home and abroad; persistent calls on foreign countries and global bodies: the U.S., UK, UN, EU, AU, ECOWAS, and FBI to intervene in the electoral process; and for the Nigerian Military to abort the franchise, to prevent Tinubu’s election, and swearing-in as President.

President Tinubu’s spent three years and two months in office, and Atiku of African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) are vying against him in 2027, and deploying the 2023 playbook, to stop his re-election.

Atiku and Obi’s strategy is to prompt Tinubu to resign, or “disqualify” himself from the January 16, 2027, poll – a demand that offends the letter and spirit of the amended 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which forbids illegal shortcuts to the Presidency.

That Atiku and Obi want Tinubu to walk away from office, and his second term bid indicates the opposition topshots and their handlers’ inevitable conclusion that their only realistic chance in 2027 is to stop Tinubu from the race!

Atiku hinges his call on the confusion and contradictions in the bureaucracy, especially the leadership tussle in the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), where the chief executive had resigned, came back and refused to hand over to a new head appointed by President Tinubu.

“How does a President publicly appoint a new head of a federal agency, yet weeks later the person said to have been replaced remains in office, continues to exercise authority, appears on the agency’s official website as its chief executive, and even holds official meetings with ministers?” Atiku queried in a statement on July 16, 2026, Vanguard reports.

Recalling the confusion that engulfed the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), where conflicting claims over the agency’s leadership “left Nigerians uncertain which presidential directive was authentic,” Atiku also cited the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) that the Presidency first distanced itself from before directing an investigation.

“When one incident occurs, it may be dismissed as human error. When it happens repeatedly, it becomes evidence of systemic failure. From NIPOST to PFIPC and now BCDA, this administration has demonstrated an alarming inability to coordinate even routine governmental decisions,” Atiku said.

“Governance has been reduced to improvisation, while Nigerians are left to bear the cost of the confusion. These are no longer isolated public relations mishaps; they point to a deeper crisis of coordination, competence and accountability at the highest levels of government,” he added.

To the ‘Waziri Adamawa’, having presided over an administration that has lurched from one avoidable controversy to another, from policy reversals to institutional confusion, from worsening economic hardship to repeated governance failures, “President Tinubu should take an honest look at the state of the nation and draw the only honourable conclusion.”

“Rather than diverting public attention to an early re-election campaign, he should devote whatever remains of his tenure to addressing the pressing challenges confronting the nation or, better still, acknowledge that he has fallen short of the expectations of Nigerians and gracefully withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest,” Atiku said.

“For the sake of Nigeria’s future, President Tinubu should put the country first, abandon any re-election bid, and allow Nigerians the opportunity to choose a leadership capable of restoring competence, accountability, constitutional fidelity and hope to our beloved nation,” he added.

As Atiku rightly posited, “History remembers leaders not for how desperately they sought to retain power, but for the wisdom they displayed in knowing when they had lost the confidence and goodwill of the people.”

Atiku trying to link the reported happenings in the government to Tinubu’s “desperation to retain power” is self-indicting, as he’s since 1993 primaried seven times – six consecutive times since 2007 – and ran three times for President (winning the Adamawa State governorship in 1999).

If Atiku weren’t desperate, and is patriotic and a “unifier,” as he claims, he would’ve taken himself out of running for President in 2023, and also in 2027, knowing that the two-term, eight-year cycle (2023-2031) belongs to Southern Nigeria under rotation of the Presidency in the country!

On his part, Obi wants to see Tinubu’s back due to his alleged “insensitivity” to the May 15, 2026, abduction of Oyo State schoolchildren and teachers, the failure to quickly rescue the victims, and the president not contacting Governor Seyi Makinde to sympathise with his government and people of the state.

During his visit to Ibadan, Oyo capital city, on July 3, 2026, Obi said he shared with Makinde his experience in tackling insecurity as Anambra governor (2006-2014), recalling that ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan regularly contacted state governors whenever major security incidents occurred, questioning President Tinubu’s exception.

Obi’s outrage after the visit: “I vividly recall that the current President, Bola Tinubu, led a team of vocal critics, who called for President Jonathan’s immediate resignation over the incident (Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State on April 14, 2014), citing his delay in calling the governor (incumbent Vice President Kashim Shettima).

“That call for IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION should actually be the case in this matter (of Tinubu should resign),” Obi said, arguing the government had witnessed multiple school kidnappings, and “it’s unacceptable that the president hadn’t contacted the affected governor more than 50 days after the Oyo incident.”

Obi added: “I cannot imagine any issue more important than the lives of our kidnapped children, their teachers, and the many other Nigerians being held captive across the country. It is now an indisputable fact that governance has completely collapsed under this administration.

“The situation reflects a total lack of capacity and compassion, compounded by glaring insensitivity. Amid such an apparent display of incompetence, the President should either resign or, at the very least, abstain from seeking re-election for the sake of our dear country. This call is patriotic, not political. A new Nigeria is POssible.”

Obi dubs his pressure on Tinubu as “patriotic, not political.” What could be more unpatriotic and political than asking the president – who’s not in violation of the disqualifying provisions of the Constitution – to resign or refrain from his second term bid six months to the 2027 election!

Does Tinubu brake any laws by not contacting or visiting Governor Makinde to commiserate with the people of Oyo over the kidnapping of schoolchildren and teachers, to warrant attempts to exclude him from the January 2027 poll?

Obi timeously visits tragedy victims or their families, and uses the moment for photo-ups, and to blast Tinubu’s alleged governance failure; but on the Oyo kidnapping, he claimed to’ve twice spoken publicly about the incident, and appealed to the kidnappers to release the children; and also contacted Makinde twice, but didn’t quickly visit the state.

As New Telegraph reported on July 6, 2026, Obi met Makinde almost two months after the abduction, stating that, “I visited Ibadan on Friday, July 3, alongside Professor Pat Utomi, to meet with the governor after more than seven weeks had elapsed without the children’s rescue.”

As he chooses to amplifying abductions of innocent Nigerians, did Obi, as a self-acclaimed “expert” in tackling insecurity, share his expertise with President Jonathan (he nominally served as an Economic Adviser) on how to rescue the 276 Chibok schoolgirls originally abducted by Boko Haram (data ranges slightly depending on the reporting agency), with 103 released, 6 confirmed dead, more than 80 escaped/rescued, and between 82 and 91 remain in captivity, and forcefully married by territorists, whom they bear children for?

Has Obi shared any tips with President Tinubu, or the security agencies on how to deal decisively with the insecurity, and rescue “the many other Nigerians being held captive across the country?” Or is he withholding such Intel for 2027 for political leverage?

LAST LINE: Part three of this copy will show that by asking President Tinubu to resign, or forego the 2027 election, Atiku and Obi have infringed on his right to the ballot!

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357.