A former deputy governor of Ekiti State, Senator Biodun Olujimi, has said that Peter Obi’s eloquence, which played a major role in his performance in the 2023 presidential election, will not pose a threat to the second-term bid of President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential poll.
“The rhetoric of the last election will not work again, except he comes with another gimmick. And you see, this (Tinubu) is a politician, a man who knows the terrain well,” Olujimi said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.
The senator, who is also a former minority leader of the Senate, said that with President Bola Tinubu’s political experience, it would be difficult to defeat him in 2027.
“This is the first time we are having a dyed-in-the-wool politician as president. He knows his onions; he knows all of us. He has been in the system for very long. It’s tough.
“This is a man who has worked with everyone, who has been useful to everyone, who has had opportunities to assist governments. Beating him? Uphill task,” she said.
Olujimi said she joined the APC because its leadership is pragmatic and resolute, noting that the party she used to criticise is different now.
She explained, “The APC we talked about in the past, the government that was in power then, is not the current one in power. There is a different APC now.
“This government is pragmatic. It’s resolute, it’s taking tough decisions and running with the decisions. It’s not like other governments – taking tough decisions and when people start to complain, dropping it and making them comfortable again, going back to the old ways.
“Rather, it’s taking the bull by the horns and moving on, and that is what I saw in the new APC. I am telling you that it is this government that made me join the APC, not any other.”
She said, though it was not fair that she dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that gave her political prominence, the opposition party lost traction.
She said her supporters at the grassroots were happy that she left the PDP.
Speaking further, Olujimi said she would rather leave the PDP than remain in the party and work against it.
The former lawmaker said that the challenges in the PDP were a collective responsibility, adding that it acted like a ruling party while in opposition, when it lost the 2023 presidential election.
On the coalition movement in the African Democratic Congress, Olujimi said the party lacked the structures at the state and local levels in Ekiti and was not an option for her.
