By Osaretin Osadebamwen
The Convener of the League of Northern Democrats, Dr Umar Ardo, has warned that recent off-season election results have exposed organisational weaknesses among opposition politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, ahead of the 2027 elections.
Both men are took contenders in the 2027 presidential race whose combined polls in 2023 outweighs that of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner in that election.
Ardo said the growing popularity of opposition figures had not translated into sufficient electoral strength, arguing that recent contests in Anambra, the Federal Capital Territory and Osun State should worry the opposition.
Also spoke as a guest on Arise television interview session Friday night.
He cited the 2025 Anambra governorship election, where Obi supported the Labour Party candidate but the party failed to win, despite Obi’s popularity in the state.
“Peter Obi was not the person on the ballot. He is campaigning for somebody else,” Ardo acknowledged, but maintained that the outcome still raised questions about political organisation.
“You need to have a strong base, your party, to win your state. Then your party now mobilises you and then delivers you at the national level,” he said.
Ardo recalled that Obi had won Anambra during the 2023 presidential election but argued that the subsequent governorship result demonstrated the difference between personal popularity and the ability to mobilise voters for another candidate.
He also pointed to the FCT, where Atiku and Obi campaigned for ADC candidates but failed to secure a chairmanship victory.
“The FCT is more of a sort of national area, yet they failed to win a single chairmanship or council,” Ardo said, arguing that the result suggested that “the combined political capital of the two of them did not work any magic in Abuja.”
He similarly cited Osun, where Atiku campaigned for the ADC candidate, arguing that the party’s poor showing could not simply be dismissed as an isolated local contest.
“These elections, separately, they can be localised. But when you combine them, they create a pattern, and this pattern should be uncomfortable for the opposition,” he said.
Ardo further criticised the ADC’s non-participation in several elections, including Ekiti and various legislative by-elections.
“That is serious. Very serious,” he said, describing the situation as evidence of “organisational failure.”
He stressed, however, that the setbacks did not guarantee an opposition defeat in 2027, but should serve as a warning that personal popularity must be converted into sustainable electoral organisation
