As the 2027 election approaches, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2023 Governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos State, has said that opposition politicians are working to unseat President Bola Tinubu.

Ahead of the 2023 election, two opposition figures, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, who had formed a team in the 2019 presidential election, parted ways. Atiku contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while the Labour Party presented Obi as its flagbearer.

The arrangement turned out in favour of the ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, who secured 8,794,726 votes to emerge victorious, while Atiku and Obi shared 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.

Critics of the ruling All Progressives Congress believe that if Atiku and Obi had teamed up like they did in 2019, they would have defeated Tinubu and his party.

However, speaking on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Tuesday, Rhodes-Vivour said opposition politicians cannot afford split votes again.

Meanwhile, in a bid to unseat President Tinubu in 2027, opposition politicians led by Atiku have been working to set up a coalition to challenge the ruling party.

The 42-year-old Lagos politician emphasised the need for Atiku and Obi to come together, adding that the only way to move Nigeria forward is for opposition figures to come together.

“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.

Rhodes-Vivour also disclosed that the coalition will soon announce the political party it will use as its platform for the 2027 election.

“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.

Meanwhile, while Atiku spearheads the coalition conversation among opposition politicians, despite being a member of the PDP, it is unclear if Obi will join the coalition yet, as his comments about it leave his followers and supporters with doubts. (Vanguard, excluding headline)