Ganduje boasted nobody can defeat Tinubu in 2027 — abi he forgets 2023?

I saw what Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, the immediate past National Chairman of APC, said yesterday in Kano. He claimed that neither Peter Obi nor Atiku Abubakar can mobilise enough support in the North to defeat President Tinubu in 2027. He said the North is strategic and the opposition lacks grassroots structure and regional appeal to penetrate the region.

Now, let us think about this carefully. Ganduje is a Northern politician himself, so he knows the terrain. But did he already forget what happened in 2023? Peter Obi won the FCT and several Northern states including Lagos. Atiku has been contesting since 1993 and still has a solid base in the North East and North West. The opposition parties are realigning as we speak. INEC has not even fixed the date for 2027 and Ganduje is already counting his chickens before they hatch.

What I find interesting is that he also called on INEC to raise the bar for party registration. He argued that only parties with functional structures and clear ideologies should be recognised. That sounds like a man who is worried that more parties will split the vote against APC. If the opposition is truly weak, why bother making it harder for new parties to emerge? Something does not add up. Do you think Ganduje's confidence is genuine or is he just playing political games ahead of 2027?