2027: Tinubu to secure 25% in north, Atiku below 10% in south — Wike

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu will secure at least 25 per cent of votes in every state across Northern Nigeria in the 2027 presidential election, while insisting that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would fail to cross the 10 per cent mark in many states in the South.

Speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, monitored in Abuja, Wike dismissed suggestions that the President’s support base in the North was under threat, describing such analysis as unfounded.

Asked about the president’s chances in the North, Wike said political strategists ought to also be concerned about Atiku’s chances in the South.

“There is no way in the north that the president will not make 25 per cent. There are so many places in the South that won’t have 10 per cent,” he said.

The minister went further to reel out specific states in the North Central zone he said Tinubu was certain to win, insisting his projection was grounded in political realities on ground rather than speculation. “Let’s take North Central. Who will win in Plateau? The President will take Plateau. He will win Nasarawa. He will win Kwara. He will win Kogi,” he said.

Wike also pushed back against the argument that economic hardship in the country would work against the president’s re-election chances, insisting that hunger has never determined the outcome of any Nigerian election. “Is there any election that had no hunger in Nigeria? Mention one election. Even with Buhari’s election, people were talking about insecurity and hunger. Everybody still voted,” he stated.