All Progressives Congress (APC) founding member, Osita Okechukwu, said the 2027 presidential election may end in a run-off.
Okechukwu, a former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, said this on Friday during Channels Television’s Inside Sources.
NEWSNGR reports that he warned that anyone assuring President Bola Tinubu of an outright victory was not being honest with him.
The APC chieftain said although he wished for his party and the President to win, his assessment was based on decades of political experience.
“I would prefer that my great party and, by extension, President Tinubu win, but I’m saying that my own analysis: I have been in partisan politics for 48 years and studied Political Science. I have been there since the PRP days in 78 to ANP to SDP, then initially PDP, but we left to join Buhari, and I have seen it all,” he said.
Okechukwu expressed concern that some of those around the President might be misleading him about his chances.
“My worry and prayers actually are that anybody who is telling Mr President that there won’t be a runoff is not being too sincere to him,” he stated.
The former VON boss also urged the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, and his Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) counterpart, Peter Obi, as well as other contenders, to avoid violence.
“I’m also pleading with them and other contenders like Peter Obi, Atiku, and others that please I’m hearing the drum of violence and it never favoured any country in the world,” he said.
Drawing lessons from the country’s history, Okechukwu recalled that political violence in the 1960s led to the collapse of democracy and eventually the civil war.
“If you take the mid-60s in the country, democracy gave way to violence and with it came bloodshed and civil war,” he added.
