Tinubu Should Quit 2027 Race, Says Big Tent

The Big Tent Coalition has criticized the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for demanding that Peter Obi withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, citing a series of discredited claims of external loans. The coalition's director of media and communications, Charles Odibo, stated that the demand is "desperate and revealing," confirming the ruling party's tendency to resort to falsehood, deflection, and character assassination when confronted with its own failures.

Odibo noted that the APC's spokesman, Dele Alake, has relied on "spurious, unsubstantiated, and clearly false accusations" released by the Anambra State Government under Governor Chukwuma Soludo. The coalition pointed out that Tinubu's personal biography remains shrouded in discrepancies and opacity, with issues surrounding his names, birth dates, education, employment history, and university records.

The coalition further criticized the APC for failing to showcase any accomplishments since taking office in 2023, instead focusing on manufacturing scandals. Odibo recalled Tinubu's own pledge that Nigerians should not vote for him for a second term if he failed to deliver uninterrupted electricity supply, but noted that power generation and distribution are now worse than when he assumed office.

The coalition also disputed the claims of external loans attributed to Obi's administration between 2006 and 2014, stating that they are a complete misrepresentation of verifiable facts. According to the coalition, each project listed by the Anambra State Government as evidence of loans contracted by the Obi administration is 100% false and deliberately misleading.

They provided details of each project, including details of the funding sources, such as the World Bank and IFAD, and noted that Anambra State participated and benefited alongside other states. The coalition concluded that Tinubu's legitimacy remains under scrutiny following recent revelations by the election monitoring platform Mundx.com, which found that 48% of the 2023 presidential election result sheets on the IReV portal were uploaded from over 800 different phone devices, in violation of the law.