According to an ex-IPAC chief, Tinubu would encounter resistance from the South East and South South in 2027

Chukwudi Ezeobika, a former National Legal Adviser for the Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), has stated that during the general elections in 2027, the people of the South East, South South, and other regions will not back President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress, or APC.

He based his viewpoint on what he called the current administration’s political intolerance, bigotry, and parochialism.

According to Ezeobika, Tinubu “has once again failed to jettison the unpatriotic, perfidious, and deeply prejudiced behavior of his predecessor in office in the way and manner he runs his government” since taking office “amidst doubts and unresolved moral questions as to the credibility of a partisan electoral process” by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
The President “has once again demonstrated that political intolerance, bigotry, and parochialism have become deeply rooted and fully entrenched as a well established ideology and inherent policy of the APC,” he added in a statement released on Sunday.

“To some extent, the impunity and contempt with which President Bola Tinubu builds tensions across the nation and creates disaffection and hatred among Nigerians is demonstrated by the marginalization and/or exclusion of many ethnic nationalities that are an integral part of the Nigeria nation in various federal appointments,” he said.

Ezeobika, who was a former candidate for Anambra South Senatorial District in 2018, further noted that the failure of the Tinubu-led APC government to heed the calls of eminent jurists and major stakeholders from the South East to put an end to the protracted unrest in the region, by releasing the detained leader of the indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally, goes to show that the political will to restore lasting peace within the region, is not a viable consideration or priority for his government. He said: “The President has, however, failed to understand that such costly inaction forecloses his chances of ever getting the needed political support within the region, in his current bid to have himself re-elected.

“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 as the people from these regions will use every means necessary to defend their votes. “Having nursed and superintended over a political party that has brought untold hardships, avoidable deaths and economic strangulation to a nation once projected as the best economy in Africa, the damaging effects of the ineptitude of the current administration on the lives of Nigerian citizens remain the main reason why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is deemed unelectable in the forthcoming general elections.”

Additionally, Ezeobika claimed that the current administration has unintentionally ignored the nation’s ongoing extrajudicial executions, as well as the frequent arrests and unlawful detentions of several young people by security agencies, particularly the Department of State Services, or DSS, without a trial.

The fact that many of these young people are lingering in detention centers around the Federation without receiving proper trials is quite concerning.

However, he said, “this is blatantly against their fundamental rights as guaranteed by Sections 34, 35, 36, and 41 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) Constitution, particularly Section 36(5), which states that “Every person arrested for a criminal offense shall be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty.”