Veteran journalist and former presidential aide, Reuben Abati, has suggested that President Bola Tinubu demonstrated political dominance following the outcome of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primary.

This is even as the veteran journalist in veiled remark questioned the eleven million votes won by Tinubu, saying basic vote counting appeared difficult during some of the party primaries held over the weekend.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Abati said Tinubu’s overwhelming victory at the APC primary showed that he was “the owner of the game.”
According to him, the president’s emergence with over 11 million votes against his challenger, Stanley Osifo, who secured just over 1,000 votes, sent a strong political message to opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He noted that the APC primary result created what he described as a “demonstration effect” for opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Abati said the implication was that opposition candidates would need to secure more votes than the figures already recorded for Tinubu within his party.
He, however, pointed out that the APC primary process was not without controversy, noting that there were protests and disagreements over the adoption of consensus and direct primaries in some areas.

Abati said: “I think we should get to a point in this country where we should start a Tinubu school of politics and strategy, because what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done over the weekend is to show that he’s the owner of the game.
“What the APC has done, basically, particularly with the presidential primaries, is to show that, okay, the president has been given 11 million votes.
“If he already has 11 million votes from the party and the challenger, one guy called Stanley Osifo, whom the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives said in Abia State got 1000 plus votes to Tinubu’s 11 million votes. It’s to show that, look, ‘I’m the owner of this game’.

“End of the day, what would the opposition politicians get, whether it’s Dumebi Kachikwu or it is Atiku Abubakar that emerges today, or whoever emerges in any of the other political parties that are trying to show that they are present on the register, already President Tinubu has presented you with a demonstration effect.
“If his party can give him a 11 million votes then the opposition will need to get more than that.
“And yet during the various events that you have seen over the weekend in the last few days, to even count 1,2,3, basic arithmetics, which you start primary school with, was a problem for that particular political party (APC). That strategy was very smart, very clever, some people would say.
“On a general basis, the President has shown that, okay, he has this strategy: If his party has already given him 11 million votes, then, of course, who is.. how many people are even on the INEC voters register?
“But beyond all of that, we also saw that there were protests. There were disagreements arising from the choice of consensus and direct primaries in other places.”