Former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, has attributed the defeat of president Bola Tinubu in Lagos State in the 2023 general elections to the weaponization of Muslim-Muslim ticket against him.

Obanikoro said this in an interview on the ‘Mic On podcast’ hosted by a Channels Television journalist, Seun Okinbaloye.

According to him, it was not Peter Obi that defeated President Tinubu in Lagos, it was how the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

“Let me tell you, what defeated us in Lagos was the Muslim-Muslim ticket, not Peter Obi. People were afraid because they didn’t know what Tinubu’s presidency will look like.

“People thought it was a situation where the Christian in Nigeria would be relegated, and that has been defeated because Tinubu is a Muslim, but he is not a religious bigot that will carry one religion over another.

“His wife is a pastor. His son, Seyi is a Christian. He was born a Muslim. He became a Christian. Most of the people in his cabinet are Christians,” he said.

The immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, has boasted that the presidential candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, respectively, do not have the grassroots structure and regional appeal required to “penetrate the North” and unseat incumbent President Bola Tinubu.

“The North is strategic in every presidential election in Nigeria. With due respect to our friends in the opposition, neither Peter Obi nor Atiku Abubakar can mobilise enough support in this region to defeat President Tinubu in 2027,” he said.

The former APC chairman also raised concerns over the growing number of political parties in the country, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to raise the bar for party registration.

He argued that only political parties with functional structures, clear ideologies and broad national reach should be recognised by the electoral body.

Ganduje’s comments come amid ongoing realignments within opposition ranks as political actors begin early consultations ahead of the 2027 general election.

He emphasised that Peter Obi and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lack the political backing in Northern Nigeria to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the next presidential election.

Ganduje made the remarks at a public event in Kano on Monday, where he assessed the strength of opposition parties ahead of the 2027 presidential poll.