Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, has said that a political alliance between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi will remove President Bola Tinubu’s government in 2027.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Tuesday, Rhodes-Vivour emphasised the need for opposition unity, warning that the divided votes that shaped the 2023 presidential election must not repeat.
“The only way that we can move this country forward in terms of the opposition is to come together. We cannot afford to divide our votes again. Add Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s votes to His Excellency Peter Obi’s votes, they’ll completely take out the current sitting President,” he said.
In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu, running on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 8,794,726 votes to emerge victorious. Atiku, representing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate, secured 6,101,533 votes. Combined, Atiku and Obi amassed over 13 million votes—significantly more than Tinubu’s winning total.
Critics of the APC have long argued that the division between Atiku and Obi cost the opposition victory in 2023. Both leaders had previously worked together in the 2019 presidential election, when Obi served as Atiku’s running mate under the PDP banner.
Rhodes-Vivour disclosed that current efforts are underway to build a coalition of opposition forces ahead of 2027, with Atiku playing a central role in the discussions.
“The conversation now—we are working to put a coalition together. We are going to hear announcements by tomorrow or next, tomorrow, and everybody is coming together. That’s our main focus. At that point we can then authoritatively say this is the party that we are going to run on,” he said.
