Segun Showunmi, a former ally of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Bola Tinubu is one thousand years wiser than all the opposition and he will defeat all those vying for the presidency in 2027.

Showunmi made the remark while backing Tinubu's stance that he will not visit all states to campaign.

Speaking in Abuja, the president had said he would focus on governance because there are bills to pay.

Reacting, Showunmi faulted critics and opposition members berating Tinubu over his remark of being absent from campaign rallies.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Showunmi said: “The President said he won't attend all of the rallies and of course the children of hate have latched onto that.

"In the build up to 2023 when they were filling stadia and they were saying absolutely nothing apart from calling the name of their party and getting their friends to answer, the man told them at that time that town hall is different from ballot blue, they were laughing, did he not defeat them?

"Now he has told them that we are going to use science and technology, I have work to do and can't leave the nation's work undone and be jumping up and down the street to say hello, we have built our structure on how polling units will work and governors will be in charge.

"Instead of them going to figure out how to build structures, they are coming to ask me how he will not be there. You check a candidate out mostly so that he can be recognized.

"When a candidate has achieved optical recognition across board, he can design his campaign in a way that it's a little bit more efficient and a little bit more easy for him.

"Do you even like that kind of criss-crossing that they will be littering the whole place, whereas, they are talking to themselves, that guy called President Tinubu is a thousand years wiser than them and I guarantee you that he's going to defeat them again.

"Tinubu must not go around the country for campaigns. He is adopting a smarter approach. All these campaign rallies by political parties are just making noise on the streets, nothing meaningful.”

2027: Tinubu 1000 years wiser than opposition – Atiku’s ex-ally, Showunmi

The G-100 Coalition says opposition parties seeking to unite against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election may unveil a single candidate just days or weeks before the poll.

The convener of the group, Salihu Lukman, disclosed this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme.

Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the APC, said opposition parties were committed to picking a consensus candidate.

“I can tell you categorically, and my confidence about that comes from what I see in the leadership of the parties: they are committed and they are working, taking all the steps necessary.

“So it could be two months, some weeks to the election, or a few days to the election; they will come out and tell Nigerians this is the direction, and everybody will queue,” Lukman said.

The G-100 was set up to encourage opposition parties to rally behind one presidential candidate who could challenge the ruling APC in 2027.

The move followed an all-opposition summit held in Ibadan in April, where participants agreed to pursue a consensus candidate.

According to Lukman, the process has expanded beyond the six political parties that initially signed on, with efforts underway to bring more parties into the alliance.

He explained that political parties and their presidential candidates had taken over the process from the G-100 and were now negotiating directly to build the trust needed to reach an agreement.

“When the parties owned the process we had started and took it beyond, took it out of our hands and began to engage each other based on the need to develop the kind of confidence they need to trust one another,” Lukman said.

He said the lack of trust among opposition parties and their presidential candidates remained one of the biggest obstacles to forming a united front ahead of the 2027 election.

Lukman said a summit held on August 31 agreed to establish five working groups to handle different aspects of the proposed alliance, including the selection of a single presidential candidate.

According to him, each participating party would nominate members to the relevant working group through its presidential candidate or party leadership, and the representatives would operate under agreed terms of reference.

2027: G-100 coalition reveals when opposition will pick single candidate to face Tinubu