Chukwudi Ezeobika, a former National Legal Adviser of the Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), has forecasted a resounding rejection of President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the South East and South South regions, alongside others, in the 2027 general elections. In a scathing critique issued on Sunday, Ezeobika attributed this anticipated backlash to what he described as the administration’s entrenched “political intolerance, bigotry, and parochialism.”
Ezeobika, who ran for the Anambra South Senatorial District in 2018, argued that Tinubu’s presidency—born from a controversial 2023 election marred by “doubts and unresolved moral questions” about the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) credibility under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu—has perpetuated the divisive and prejudiced tendencies of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. “The President has once again failed to jettison the unpatriotic, perfidious, and deeply prejudiced behaviour of his predecessor in office,” he stated, accusing Tinubu of embedding these traits as core APC ideologies.
Central to Ezeobika’s critique is the perceived marginalization of ethnic nationalities, particularly in federal appointments, which he claims reflects Tinubu’s “impunity and disdain,” fostering national tension and disaffection. He pointed to the administration’s refusal to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), despite calls from jurists and South East stakeholders, as a glaring example of its unwillingness to pursue peace in the region. “This singular inaction remains the main and only reason why his defeat in the whole of the South East and South South will be absolute, unalloyed, and damning,” Ezeobika warned, predicting that residents will fiercely defend their votes in 2027.
He further lambasted Tinubu for presiding over a party that has inflicted “untold hardships, avoidable deaths, and economic strangulation” on a nation once poised to lead Africa‘s economy. Ezeobika argued that the administration’s ineptitude has rendered Tinubu “unelectable,” asserting that this failure alone will doom his re-election bid. Compounding this, he alleged a pattern of unchecked extrajudicial killings and illegal detentions of youths by security agencies, notably the Department of State Services (DSS), without trial. “It is deeply troubling that many of these youths are languishing in detention facilities across the Federation even without any formal trials,” he said, citing violations of constitutional rights under Sections 34, 35, 36, and 41 of the 1999 Constitution, particularly Section 36(5), which presumes innocence until proven guilty.
Ezeobika’s statement paints a grim picture of Tinubu’s leadership, framing it as a continuation of APC’s alleged legacy of exclusion and oppression. With the South East and South South—regions where Tinubu polled just 5.8% in 2023—already skeptical of his administration, Ezeobika predicts that the President’s “costly inaction” and governance failures will seal his political fate in these crucial zones come 2027, as citizens mobilize to reject what he calls a regime of hardship and intolerance.
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