Buba Galadima said on Saturday that Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso will announce on Monday the platform on which they intend to contest the 2027 elections, and he urged their supporters to prepare for a fierce public fight around that move.
The secretary of the board of trustees of the New Nigeria People’s Party spoke at a stakeholder meeting organised by the Obi-Kwankwaso movement in Abuja, where he said opponents would quickly turn to columnists and social media influencers to attack the pair. “I’m here to guide you on your response to what will happen. First, they will sponsor columnists. They will deploy social media influencers to start attacking our candidates,” Galadima said.
He told supporters on social media and those who “use the mighty pen” to be ready to answer attacks with equal force. “For all of you who are on social media, for all of you who use the mighty pen, you must be prepared to respond to anything they are going to say—anything under the sun that they may say about our leaders, whom we know very well to be people of integrity and honour. We must counter them with the ferociousness that is expected of an intelligent person,” he said.
Galadima cast the coming contest in stark terms, saying the All Progressives Congress would “surely” be defeated in 2027. “Salvaging a country from the hands of fascists like this is not an easy task,” he said. “It requires sacrifice, strategy, and the use of the internet. So, ladies and gentlemen, be prepared to be in the trenches to safeguard our freedom. Let no one deceive you into thinking it will be easy.” He added: “In your struggle, I expect you to say: come rain or shine, we must democratically, through the ballot box, remove this bad government. The ball is in our court.”
The remarks come as opposition figures continue to reposition ahead of 2027. Habibu Mohammed said Obi and Kwankwaso would soon leave the African Democratic Congress for the Nigeria Democratic Congress, adding that discussions with the NDC had reached about 90 percent. Galadima later told Channels Television that key opposition figures had begun aligning under the NDC and urged former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to join it, warning that if he declined, he could be blamed for any failure to unite opposition forces before the election.
The political maneuvering also comes against the backdrop of a separate ADC faction that has scheduled ward and local government area non-elective congresses for May 7, state congresses for May 8, and a special convention and presidential primary for May 24, 2026. That faction has insisted the party is not a special purpose vehicle for ambitious politicians, underscoring how crowded the opposition field has become before the 2027 vote.
