Veteran journalist and ex-presidential aide, Reuben Abati, has said that President Bola Tinubu showed political dominance in the aftermath of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primary.
This was even as the veteran journalist in a veiled remark questioned the eleven million votes won by Tinubu, saying that basic vote counting appeared difficult during some of the party primaries held over the weekend.
Speaking as a guest on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Abati said Tinubu’s massive victory at the APC primary was an indication that he “owns the game.”
He said the emergence of the president with more than 11 million votes against his challenger, Stanley Osifo, who got just over 1,000 votes, sent a strong political message to opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said the APC primary result had generated what he called a “demonstration effect” among opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
The implication was that opposition candidates would have to get more votes than the figures already recorded for Tinubu within his party, Abati said.
However, he said the APC primary process was not without controversy, saying there were protests and disagreements over adoption of consensus and direct primaries in some areas.
“I think we should get to a point in this country where we should start a Tinubu school of politics and strategy, because what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done over the weekend is to show that he’s the owner of the game,” Abati said.
“Basically what the APC has done is to show that, with the presidential primaries, the president has been given 11 million votes.
“If he has 11 million votes already from the party and the challenger, one guy called Stanley Osifo. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in Abia State got 1000 plus votes to Tinubu’s 11 million votes. It’s to show that look, ‘I’m the owner of this game’.
End of the day, what would the opposition politicians get, whether it is Dumebi Kachikwu or it is Atiku Abubakar that emerges today, or whoever emerges in any of the other political parties that are trying to show that they are present on the register, already President Tinubu has presented you with a demonstration effect.
“If his party can give him 11 million votes then the opposition has to get more than that.
“And yet during the various events that you have seen over the weekend in the last few days, to even count 1,2,3, basic arithmetics, which you start primary school with was a problem for that particular political party (APC). That was very clever, very clever, some would say.
“Overall, the President has demonstrated that, okay, he has this strategy: How many people are even on the INEC voters register? Of course if his party has already given him 11 million votes then.. who is..
But on top of all that, we also saw that there were protests. There were differences elsewhere on the choice of consensus and direct primaries.”
