A public affairs analyst, Prof. Simeon Nnah, has urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, to set aside their political ambitions and unite ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Nnah said the inability of the two opposition figures to work together in the 2023 election contributed to the emergence of the incumbent, President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking yesterday during a programme by News Central, Nnah said either Atiku or Obi must be willing to sacrifice personal ambition if the opposition is serious about defeating the ruling party in 2027.

He said: “If both Atiku and Obi had come together in 2023, the implications are obvious. The ambitions of these two candidates were equally what truncated the 2023 elections. Because if the two of them had come together in 2023, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Nnah said the situation had become more critical ahead of the 2027 election, stressing that one of the two politicians needed to “swallow his pride” and support the other.

“Again, one expects that one of them should sheathe the sword, swallow his pride and give in, so that Nigeria will be better for it. But if you look at the political sphere now, there are so many pretenders,” he said.

According to him, many of the politicians indicating interest in the 2027 presidential election are more interested in personal political gains than genuinely contesting for the presidency.

He said: “More pretenders than contenders in the coming election. We have about 19 of them, and I can tell you for free, some of them are pretenders.

“They are just there to make a name for themselves, maybe make a living after that. Because what some of them will do now is that at the twilight of the election, they look at a candidate they want to win, and they will say, ‘I will collapse my structures to join this political party’ for political gains.”

Nnah, however, identified Atiku and Obi as the major opposition figures capable of mounting a serious challenge to Tinubu, urging members of the proposed opposition coalition to prevail on the two to reach an agreement.