Abure Says He'll Support Tinubu or Atiku, Not Obi for 2027

The former National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, has said he is ready to team up with President Bola Tinubu or former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for the 2027 presidential election. He made it clear that he will not support Peter Obi, the candidate from the Nigeria Democratic Congress.

Abure explained that his choice of candidate depends on a Supreme Court case about the Labour Party leadership. He also mentioned that it will depend on his own political interests, ideology, and how acceptable the candidate is.

He said he will rally his supporters against Obi. Abure believes Obi wasted the goodwill and political structure that helped him perform well in the 2023 presidential election.

The NDC and Obi’s team dismissed Abure’s comments. They said they have moved on from the former LP chairman and are now focused on the 2027 election.

In an exclusive chat with The PUNCH, Abure said he would talk to his supporters and choose a candidate if the Supreme Court doesn't give its ruling by the end of November. When asked about the three leading candidates, he said, "As for me, we are waiting for the Supreme Court to decide our case, and if the judgment is not coming before the end of this November, we will rationalise the offer of whoever wants our support."

He added, "However, it must tally with our interest and ideology, and he must be a sellable candidate. Once these are settled, our faces will be everywhere. I am talking about the same faces that took Peter Obi everywhere in 2023."

Abure stated, "We are open to working with any of the major candidates, but as former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, said, 'I know whom I will not hand over to. But I don’t know who I will hand over to.' So, similarly, I am very sure that I wouldn’t support Peter Obi for the 2027 general election. But I am open to an alignment with others."

He insisted that the NDC is not on his list of possible supporters due to Obi's involvement. He stated that he has not started talks with any presidential candidate yet. "Yes, obviously the NDC is not included. I don’t see any reason to support Peter Obi again. I will not. And I am saying this with conviction and without any fear of contradiction. However, as of now, I am not in talks with any candidate yet. This is because it’s not just about me. It’s also about my followers and their interests," he said.

Abure also mentioned that his supporters are still loyal to the party structure he leads, despite some members leaving for other parties. He accused Obi and Abia State Governor Alex Otti of undermining the party’s leadership. He claimed they dismantled the party structure from the local to the national level.

"Right now, they are standing by the structure of the party, the same one Otti and the illegal leadership he forced on the Labour Party sacked from wards, states to national level. What these people did to this party was a big disservice. But we know that I was their target," Abure said.

The conflict between Abure and Obi started due to long-standing leadership issues in the Labour Party. This included disagreements over the party's national convention and control of its structure. While Abure accused Obi and Otti of worsening the crisis by forming a parallel National Working Committee in Owerri, Obi's allies claimed that Abure broke an earlier agreement to hold an inclusive convention starting from the local levels.

The disagreement widened the gap between Obi and Abure’s team, leading Obi to leave the Labour Party for a new political party. Abure argued that this crisis showed Obi’s weak leadership, questioning how he could lead Nigeria if he could not manage a political party.

"Obi’s behaviour in the Labour Party is now what people are using to assess if he can truly lead the country. This is because if you can’t lead a micro, there is no way you can lead a macro," he said.

Abure also criticized Obi’s move from the Labour Party to the African Democratic Congress before eventually joining the NDC. He claimed Obi tried to repeat the leadership struggle he faced in his previous party.

Abure noted that Obi left the ADC after failing to achieve his political goals there, pointing out that some of his supporters stayed in ADC while others followed him to the NDC.

When asked if Obi would have the same freedom he had under his leadership, Abure said the situation in the NDC is different. He argued that Senator Seriake Dickson, the national leader of the NDC, is firmly in control.

"No way! Let Obi compare the freedom and leverage he enjoyed under our leadership to what he is experiencing in the NDC; he already knows the difference. You can see that Senator Dickson is fully in charge and he’s not giving up the party’s leadership," he said.

Abure predicted that Obi would not do as well in the 2027 election as he did in 2023. "Let me say clearly that Obi will not record the successes he recorded in the 2023 general election. That is because he has squandered his goodwill, human capital, resources, and mismanaged all the gains he had in 2023," he said.

Abure claimed that Obi’s exit from the Labour Party has cost him the organizational structure and campaign machinery that helped him secure over six million votes in the last presidential election.