Presidential aide Daniel Bwala has said his former principal and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar may never become Nigeria’s president, despite years of contesting for the top office.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Bwala, who was Atiku’s spokesperson during the 2023 presidential campaign, said the former vice president has likely exhausted all opportunities to realise his ambition.
“In all honesty, I have expressed my opinion that it may never have been destined by God for him to be a president in Nigeria because he has done everything he needs to do to be president and he did not win the presidency.
“2023 was the biggest opportunity that my former principal Atiku Abubakar had. He will never have that kind of privilege again,” he said.
Bwala also dismissed the chances of the emerging opposition coalition, including Labour Party’s Peter Obi and former APC chieftain Rotimi Amaechi, to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
He criticised the coalition’s adoption of the African Democratic Congress as its platform, saying the group lacked any coherent alternative policy direction.
“What I still find intriguing is that this coalition of internally displaced politicians have not been able to summon the courage and come up with alternative facts, alternative policies or alternative programmes.
“Throughout the interview you had with Peter Obi, what I find is that he has not been able to counter or to disagree in the real sense of the word with the policies that we are implementing,” he said.
Bwala also predicted that the opposition alliance would collapse within six months due to internal power struggles over who should emerge as the coalition’s presidential candidate.
He referenced a recent comment by Labour Party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed, who reportedly acknowledged that a major threat to the coalition’s unity is the ambition of its various members.
“But one of them, his name is Datti (Baba-Ahmed) already sensed the danger that is ahead for them and he said that the problem of this coalition will be who will be the President because right now, I’m quoting him, ‘everybody wants to be the president’.
“After one month, when they sit down, I am telling you on my own honour, in the next six months, that coalition thing will not even be a conversation, they will scatter,” Bwala stated.
