Presidential aide Daniel Bwala has expressed doubts about Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s chances of becoming Nigeria’s president, citing the former vice president’s unsuccessful bid in the 2023 election.
Bwala, who was Atiku’s campaign spokesperson during the election, believed that Atiku may not have been destined for the presidency, given his failure to win despite his efforts.
Bwala said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
He noted that the 2023 election was Atiku’s best chance, and he won’t have that kind of privilege again.
According to him, “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 dismissed the opposition coalition’s ability to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027, saying they lacked alternative policies to convince Nigerians.
The opposition leaders had come together last week to adopt the African Democratic Party (ADC) as the platform for its coalition to send Tinubu whom they said has taken the country backwards packing from the Aso Villa.
But Bwala dismissed any threat from them, saying that they have been unable to present alternative policies which can convince Nigerians to vote for them.
He predicted that the coalition would scatter within six months due to internal power struggles over who would be the flag bearer.
His words: “All this fantasy of coalition, we all know that once there is a phenomenon like that we are going to have a good two to three weeks of all these romanticizing of ‘we have ideas, we can do this’.
“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 theis 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 added.
Bwala criticised the opposition leaders for failing to present alternative policies.
“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,” he said.
He noted that Peter Obi, a key figure in the opposition coalition, has not been able to effectively counter the policies of the Tinubu administration.
“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,” Bwala said.
