2027's Biggest Plot Twist: Makinde Goes Solo — And It Could Hand Tinubu The Win

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Three weeks ago, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Seyi Makinde, Rotimi Amaechi, all of them sat in one room in Ibadan and swore they were going to field one candidate against Tinubu in 2027.

[00:00:20]One team, one fist. That was April 25th.

[00:00:26]Fast forward less than three weeks and Makinde has declared for president himself on his own platform, on his own terms, while Atiku is still submitting nomination forms at ADC with his supporters literally breaking down doors. So, here's the question nobody is asking loud enough. Was the Ibadan summit ever real or was it a political theater that just fell apart before the ink dried?

[00:01:00]Stay with me because what happened this week in Ibadan changes everything about 2027.

[00:01:08]Before we go deeper, if you're just finding Nigerian Newsfeed, welcome. This channel exists to break down what's really happening in Nigerian politics without the noise, without the spin.

[00:01:23]Hit that subscribe button right now and stay with me because this one gets very interesting, very fast.

[00:01:33]Let's build the picture properly because context is everything here.

[00:01:39]On July 2, 2025, Nigeria's major opposition figures, Atiku, Obi, El-Rufai, Amaechi, David Mark, Jerry Gana, they all attend the Yar'Adua Center in Abuja and effectively took over a smaller party called the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

[00:02:05]The goal was clear. Stop repeating the mistake of 2023, where PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP all run separately and handed Tinubu the presidency with just 36% of the vote.

[00:02:23]A divided opposition gave him the presidency. A united one, they argued, would take it back.

[00:02:31]Fast forward to April 25th, 2026.

[00:02:35]Makinde hosts a major opposition summit right there in Ibadan.

[00:02:41]Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso, Amaechi, David Mark, Jerry Gana, they all attend, and they issue a communique committing to one presidential candidate against Tinubu.

[00:02:57]They even pass a vote of no confidence in INEC chairman.

[00:03:02]Unity, structure, message discipline. It looked serious.

[00:03:08]Then comes May 14th, 2026, just 3 weeks later. Makinde stands at the historic Mapo Hall in Ibadan in front of thousands of supporters, signs a memorandum of understanding between the PDP and a party called the Allied People's Movement, APM, and declares, "Today, I, Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, announce my candidacy for the position of president of the Republic of Nigeria."

[00:03:43]He calls it the Reset Nigeria Movement.

[00:03:47]And just 1 day later, May 15th, Atiku is at the ADC Secretariat in Abuja submitting his own nomination forms.

[00:03:58]Supporters are mobbing the building.

[00:04:00]Journalists can't even get near him. Two men, two platforms, two declarations, one week. That's where we are.

[00:04:11]Now, let's understand the moving parts, the institutions involved, because this is not just a personality clash. There are legal and structural landmines everywhere.

[00:04:24]First, the PDP crisis. The Supreme Court recently delivered a judgment that essentially nullified the PDP's Ibadan convention held in November last year and weakened the Makinde-aligned faction's claim to the party's national leadership. So, Makinde's grip on PDP at the national level is legally contested.

[00:04:50]That's partly why he's now operating through APM. It's a workaround.

[00:04:56]Second, Wike's countermove. FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, who controls the other PDP faction and is aligned with Tinubu, came out immediately after Makinde's declaration and said flatly that there is no PDP-APM alliance. He said INEC does not recognize it. He called it 419.

[00:05:22]Now, legally, electoral alliances between parties in Nigeria must be registered and recognized by INEC. If the alliance isn't formalized through INEC, candidates under it could face ballot complications. That legal gray area is real and Wike knows it.

[00:05:42]Third, the ADC is also under siege.

[00:05:47]Former members led by Dumebi Kachikwu, ADC's 2023 presidential candidate, have filed court cases challenging the July 2025 takeover as illegitimate.

[00:06:01]And the Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, has actually argued in court that ADC should be deregistered entirely for poor electoral performance.

[00:06:12]So, Atiku's platform is fighting for survival in court while he's submitting forms.

[00:06:19]The opposition is fighting on three legal fronts simultaneously.

[00:06:24]That's the structural reality. Now, before I get into the strategy layer, which is the part that changes everything, drop a comment below and tell me, do you think Makinde declaring for president helps or hurts the opposition? I genuinely want to know what you think before we finish this breakdown.

[00:06:44]This is the real story, not the declarations, the strategy behind the declarations.

[00:06:51]Makinde's move is a power play, not a surprise. After the Supreme Court weakened his faction inside PDP, his leverage inside any unified coalition dropped significantly. If he goes into the ADC or any joint primary as a leader of a legally weakened PDP faction, he's a junior partner negotiating from a weak position. But, if he declares on his own platform and builds his own momentum, suddenly he's a candidate who must be negotiated with. He's not asking for a seat at the table, he's bringing his own table.

[00:07:25]What does he want? Most political analysts believe Makinde is positioning for one of two outcomes, either the presidential slot itself, unlikely given his limited national machinery, or a vice presidential spot on a joint ticket negotiated from a position of strength.

[00:07:43]The ADC insiders had been floating a Atiku-Makinde pairing for months.

[00:07:48]Makinde just raised his asking price.

[00:07:51]And Atiku, here is where it gets uncomfortable for him. Atiku spent months being the man who assembled the coalition. He was the convener, the deal maker, the senior partner. His camp was floating ticket pairings, Atiku-Makinde, Atiku-Amaechi.

[00:08:08]He paid 90 million naira for his ADC presidential form. He built what he called a coalition train. But Makinde just stepped off that train and built his own. And the uncomfortable truth is Atiku needs the Southwest. In 2023, he only got 942,000 votes across the entire South. Makinde, as a sitting Oyo governor who controls significant Southwest political machinery, is exactly the kind of running mate that could unlock votes Atiku desperately needs in that region.

[00:08:43]Without Makinde in the ADC coalition, Atiku's ticket becomes even more northern heavy in a race where the zoning argument is already working against him.

[00:08:53]The silent players, watch the PDP governors, particularly Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, who is the remaining significant PDP governor aligned with Makinde's faction. Also, watch the Wike camp's next move. Wike has openly backed Tinubu for 2027. And if his PDP faction formally aligns with APC, that further fragments what's left of the opposition.

[00:09:17]Zoom out. What does all of this mean for Nigeria?

[00:09:21]One, the opposition fragmentation problem is back. 2023 failed because Atiku, Obi, and Kwankwaso split the anti-Tinubu vote three ways. Right now, heading into 2027, you potentially have Atiku on ADC, Makinde on PDP APM, Obi likely on a separate platform, possibly the NDC, and Kwankwaso still on NNPP. If none of these forces consolidate, Tinubu wins again comfortably. That's the math.

[00:09:52]Two, Makinde's entry reshapes the Southwest. Tinubu lost Lagos in 2023, and his approval ratings have declined sharply since then. He was relying on his strong Southwest showing to cushion his national numbers. But a Makinde candidacy backed by Oyo's political machinery directly eats into votes Tinubu needs in that region. That is actually bad news for Tinubu and relatively good news for any anti-APC coalition, even an imperfect one.

[00:10:22]Three, the everyday Nigerian is watching. While politicians move between parties and sign MOUs at fancy events, Nigerians are still living with the fallout of subsidy removal, a weakened naira, and rising food prices. The opposition's credibility hinges on whether they can demonstrate this is about governance and not just a power swap. Every time an opposition summit ends and a new declaration happens 3 weeks later, that credibility takes a hit.

[00:10:52]Let me address what people are getting wrong about this story.

[00:10:56]Misconception one, Makinde betrayed the coalition. Not exactly. The coalition never had a formal, legally binding structure with an agreed candidate. What existed was a communique, a statement of intent, not a signed deal. Politicians issue communiques the way they hand out business cards. Makinde making his own move is opportunistic, yes, but it's not technically a betrayal of something that was never fully formed.

[00:11:24]Misconception two, this kills Atiku's chances. Also not necessarily true, yet.

[00:11:30]Atiku has survived multiple political earthquakes. His northern support base remains intact. His establishment networks are deep. The question is whether he can expand beyond his base, and Makinde's move may actually push Atiku's team to work harder on building that southern bridge rather than assuming it would come naturally.

[00:11:50]Misconception three, the PDP APM alliance is illegitimate because Wike said so. Wike has an interest in dismissing this alliance. He's politically aligned with Tinubu. His word on whether the alliance is valid is not the final authority. INEC's position on whether the MOU meets electoral law requirements is what matters. That determination is still pending.

[00:12:13]The strongest counter argument in favor of Makinde's move is this. A genuinely consolidated opposition that agrees on one credible candidate does have a path to defeating Tinubu. Makinde is arguing he could be that candidate or the bridge to one. Where his argument falls apart is in the numbers. His national structure right now doesn't match his ambition. Oyo is not enough.

[00:12:38]Here's what to watch going forward.

[00:12:41]Signal one, whether Makinde and Atiku's camps resume backroom alliance talks.

[00:12:47]The fact that negotiations were reportedly ongoing before May 14 suggests both sides know they need each other. Makinde's declaration may actually accelerate a deal rather than kill one, just with Makinde getting better terms.

[00:13:02]Signal two, whether the NDC Obi Kwankwaso ticket holds together and grows. Obi and Kwankwaso have already left ADC and formally joined the NDC on May 3rd. The NDC has since named Obi as its consensus presidential candidate with Kwankwaso as the likely running mate. Kwankwaso himself confirmed on Trust TV just days ago, "I believe so when asked about the joint ticket.

[00:13:30]The OK movement, as supporters are calling it, brings together Obi's urban reform base and Kwankwaso's northern grassroots machine. That combination was nearly enough in 2023, running on separate platforms. Together on one ticket with a crisis-free party structure, the NDC could become the most credible opposition force in the race.

[00:13:53]Watch whether they can consolidate their party structures and hold off Atiku from pulling their support base back into the ADC tent.

[00:14:01]Signal three, the ADC's legal battles.

[00:14:04]If the courts or INEC move to deregister or significantly hamper ADC, Atiku's entire platform collapses. With Obi and Kwankwaso already gone to NDC and Makinde building his own PDP-APM structure, Atiku would be left scrambling for yet another platform, the third in less than two years. His ability to sustain a credible candidacy under that kind of legal and political pressure is the real unknown.

[00:14:33]Best-case scenario, by late 2026, the three opposition camps, Atiku's ADC, Makinde's PDP-APM, and Obi-Kwankwaso's NDC, begin serious merger talks. One platform, one ticket, built around a credible consensus candidate who can win votes across the north, southwest, and southeast simultaneously.

[00:14:56]It would take extraordinary ego management, but Nigeria has seen stranger political marriages.

[00:15:02]Worst case, three presidential candidates, Atiku, Makinde, and Obi, run on three separate platforms. Tinubu wins a second term with under 40% of the vote, and four years from now, we are sitting here having this exact conversation again.

[00:15:19]Here's the bottom line. What you are watching right now is not chaos. It is bargaining. Every declaration, every party switch, every MOU signing is a move in a negotiation that hasn't reached its final chapter yet. Makinde is pricing himself up. Obi and Kwankwaso have found their own lane and Atiku is trying to hold a coalition that is hemorrhaging by the week.

[00:15:42]The real question, the one I raised at the top, is whether what happened in Ibadan on April 25th was ever real. And the honest answer is it was real as intent, but it was never real as structure. There was no binding agreement, no agreed candidate, no legal framework, just powerful men in a room signing a piece of paper hoping ambition wouldn't get in the way.

[00:16:06]It always does. The chess is on and the clock is ticking.

[00:16:11]If this breakdown gave you clarity on what's actually going on inside Nigeria's opposition right now, do me one favor. Share this video with one person who needs to understand it. And if you're not subscribed to Naijan Newsfeed yet, hit that subscribe button right now. This channel is completely free. Subscribing costs you nothing, but it is the single most important thing you can do to help me keep making these breakdowns. Every subscriber tells YouTube this content matters. So, hit subscribe, leave a comment with your take, and I will see you in the next one. Stay sharp.