Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has dismissed the possibility of opposition politicians uniting against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, describing the proposed coalition as “dead on arrival”.
Speaking during the City Boy Movement Media One-on-One with Otega Ogra, Omokri said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi would not be willing to sacrifice their presidential ambitions for each other.
He attributed the difficulty of forming a strong opposition alliance to what he described as the “very big egos” of the major political figures involved.
Asked whether the opposition could unite against Tinubu, Omokri said: “It’s not going to happen because the people in the opposition, they have very big egos.
“Peter Obi has actually even a larger ego than Waziri Atiku Abubakar. It’s just that Peter Obi has self-esteem issues, so because he has self-esteem issues, he is able to hide the big ego.
“Peter Obi is not going to step down for Waziri Atiku Abubakar. Waziri Atiku Abubakar is not going to step down for Peter Obi. None of those people are going to step down for the other. So it’s dead on arrival”, he said.
Omokri predicted that while representatives of the opposition may hold meetings on a possible alliance, the major contenders could withdraw once the question of the presidential candidate emerges.
“In fact, let me tell you what is going to happen. They will have that meeting. They will send representatives. The big fish themselves will not even go”, he said.
Asked what would happen if the coalition eventually succeeded, Omokri replied: “I’m not going to spend my intellectual prowess discussing what’s not going to happen”, he said.
The former presidential aide, who opposed Tinubu during the 2023 election but has since become a supporter of the President, also predicted Tinubu’s victory in 2027.
He cited the President’s growing support among governors and argued that Tinubu won in 2023 despite facing tougher political circumstances.
“You know, the best predictor of future events is past events. If this man won an election when he had, I think, just 19 governors, maybe probably 20 governors, the Central Bank moved against him, and then he had a lot of things going against him, and he won, how much so now that he has probably over 30 governors? I mean, he is going to win the election”, Omokri said.
He also pointed to what he described as improvements in the economy, saying, “The economy has added $67 billion in two years. Our GDP is now growing faster than our population”.
Omokri said opposition politicians should instead prepare for another term outside government.
“What they are preparing for right now is four more years of opposition, of activism”, he said.
Explaining his shift from opposing Tinubu in 2023 to supporting his administration, Omokri highlighted the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) student loan scheme, which he said had helped more than one million students remain in tertiary institutions.
“The reason we are spending trillions of naira today fighting insecurity is because in the past we did not spend billions of naira fighting illiteracy.
He also cited regular payment of federal and state workers, major infrastructure projects and developments in the financial markets as signs of progress under Tinubu.
On infrastructure, Omokri highlighted the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, saying their completion would cut travel times and logistics costs while improving the movement of agricultural produce and other goods.
He further argued that the Southeast had gained greater representation in the country’s security structure and federal infrastructure programme under Tinubu.
On insecurity, he contrasted the current situation with major attacks recorded during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, including the 2022 Kuje prison attack, the Abuja-Kaduna train attack and assaults on military facilities.
He said several wanted terrorist and bandit commanders had been killed, arrested or prosecuted under the current administration, while measures to tackle terrorism financing had also improved.
“There is progress in Nigeria. There’s a lot of progress, but it’s just because our people are very emotional, and they don’t have a very long memory. If you focus on what cannot lie, the facts, you’re going to see that insecurity has improved”, he said.
