A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Dele Momodu, has described former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the most experienced among the leading contenders for the 2027 presidential election.
Momodu said Atiku's experience at the national level distinguishes him from President Bola Tinubu and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi.
He stated this on Wednesday during an interview on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, monitored by DAILY POST in Abeokuta.
"If you look at the antecedents of the three major candidates, between Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, you will see that Atiku is the most experienced. He has managed our country at the highest level," he said.
Momodu traced Atiku's political journey to the 1992 Social Democratic Party, SDP, presidential primary where he contested against late MKO Abiola and stepped down for him.
He said Atiku accepted the outcome without crisis even after he was not picked as Abiola's running mate, describing it as a mark of true democratic temperament.
"He is the only one who started from around 1992, contested the SDP primary against Abiola and stepped down with uncommon equanimity. He did not make any noise," Momodu said.
He noted that Atiku was among the founders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and served as Vice-President from 1999 to 2007.
Comparing Atiku with Obi, Momodu argued that while Obi's best was demonstrated in Anambra, Atiku's was at the presidency level managing the national economy.
"Peter Obi has tried his best in Anambra, while Atiku's best is at the level of vice president controlling the economy of Nigeria. The difference is clear. He has matured in experience and exposure," he said.
Momodu also said President Tinubu's experience was largely limited to Lagos.
"What I'm trying to say is that Tinubu's experience was limited to Lagos, and that is why when he became president, he thought Nigeria was Lagos. And he has found out now that Nigeria is not Lagos," he said.
He argued that the current economic hardship under the present administration did not show prosperity, insisting Atiku remained better positioned to lead the country.
"Well, we are yet to see that prosperity, and if yesterday would determine today and tomorrow, it is obvious that Tinubu should retire now and let someone else do it," Momodu added.
Insurance Meets Tech (IMT) has confirmed Mr. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, OON, Co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, and Founding Partner of Future Africa, as Headline Speaker for its fifth edition. IMT 5.0, themed “Building Insurance That Connects”, will hold on Friday, November 20, 2026, at the Balmoral Event Centre, Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Mr. Aboyeji will deliver a presentation titled “Capital, Code and the Race to Nigeria’s First Insurance Unicorn.” He will examine how a better-capitalised industry, paired with scalable technology, can place insurance on the platforms Nigerians already use, and what it will take for a homegrown insurer to reach that milestone.
Organisers selected him for his vantage point as both founder and investor, having helped create two of the continent’s first technology unicorns, and through Future Africa he continues to back founders solving hard problems across Africa.
Speaking on the choice of Headline Speaker and topic, Odion Aleobua, Convener of Insurance Meets Tech, said: “Nigeria has already built billion-dollar companies in payments and in talent, while insurance is still waiting for its breakout moment. This is the kind of trailblazing conversation we seek to have at Insurance Meets Tech. Iyin has built two of those companies and now backs the next generation of founders, so he sees this question from both sides of the table. He is the right person to set the tone for this conversation at IMT 5.0.”
The conversation also lands at a pivotal moment, as recently concluded recapitalisation has left insurers with stronger balance sheets and the implementation of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) is reshaping sector governance. Shareholders who committed fresh capital expect growth that justifies it, while Nigerians expect insurance to be as simple and accessible as the digital services they use daily.
Commenting on his participation, Mr. Aboyeji said: “Insurers now have the capital, and the technology to reach customers at scale is already here. What remains is building products that live inside platforms people trust. That is how the first insurance unicorn gets built. I look forward to making that case at IMT 5.0 to executives, founders, regulators, investors and policymakers from the insurance and technology sectors.”
This year’s theme reflects the organisers’ conviction that the future belongs to institutions that build ecosystems connecting people with capital, creating trust and unlocking opportunity on a scale.
About Insurance Meets Tech
Insurance Meets Tech (IMT) is West Africa’s leading insurance and tech conference. Across four editions, it has become the region’s foremost platform for executive dialogue where insurance and technology meet.
Blacksmith, a platform that helps companies more efficiently build and test software, including code written by AI, announced Wednesday a $66 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia that values the company at $1 billion.
In announcing the round, Blacksmith co-founder and CEO Aditya Jayaprakash said the company was founded to make continuous integration (CI) — the process of building, testing, merging, and validating code changes — “less painful.” In a blog post, he said that “most companies are struggling to keep up with the volume of CI they need to run,” especially in an era where so much code is written by AI.
“As agents write more of the world’s software, the question that matters is whether it can be trusted,” he added.
The company also announced that its annual recurring revenue has grown 17x and that it has run over 90 million CI jobs, or individual automated code checks. Customers include Mercury and Granola.
The Series C comes just two months after its $45 million Series B, which valued the company at $550 million. A year ago, Blacksmith was valued at $60 million after raising a $10 million Series A. It has raised $125 million to date.