Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), has brushed aside the recent endorsement of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid by 22 governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), calling it irrelevant to the real political battle ahead.
In a recent interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Lawal, a key player in the growing opposition coalition, said the alliance is focused on winning over the Nigerian electorate — not political elites.
“Let the governors continue to defect, we don’t care,” Lawal said. “Even if all 36 state governors and the FCT join the APC, it changes nothing. They collectively represent only 37 votes. Add their families and maybe you get 1,000. We’re targeting the voter — the real victim of the system we want to change.”
Lawal emphasized that the coalition is confident in its chances of defeating the APC in the 2027 general elections. He added that he had put his personal life, including his farming activities, on hold to focus on the project.
“If I didn’t believe in this cause, I’d be on my farm right now,” he said. “We’re not here for show — we don’t take pictures or minutes at our meetings. We’re working silently but strategically. At the right time, we’ll go public with our plans.”
This comes amid growing momentum within the opposition camp, as the Daily Trust reports that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has been chosen as the coalition’s official political platform for the 2027 presidential race. Once considered a fringe party, the ADC is now positioned at the heart of a renewed political alliance aimed at unseating Tinubu and the APC.
The coalition, formally unveiled on March 20, includes major political figures such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, and former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai. While the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was initially considered as the coalition’s platform, internal disagreements — particularly SDP’s resistance to being a “special-purpose vehicle for selfish politicians” — led to its rejection.
After weeks of negotiation, coalition leaders finally settled on the ADC during a high-level meeting in Abuja, signaling what one insider called “the official birth of the coalition.”
With opposition forces consolidating and internal rifts surfacing in the APC, Nigeria’s 2027 presidential race is already shaping up to be fiercely contested.
