journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering elections, politics, and governance in Nigeria.

Primate Elijah Ayodele, founder of the INRI evangelical spiritual church, Lagos, has warned President Bola Tinubu not to be overconfident about a return for a second term.

Primate Ayodele's warning comes as Nigerians look forward to the 2027 election.

Although the 2027 general election is still about one year and six months away, political parties have begun earnest preparation ahead of the polls.

This comes as governors and lawmakers who won their seats under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) flags have begun to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In April, Sheriff Oborevwori, the governor of Delta, shook the polity when he announced the defection of the entire political structure of the state to the APC. He disclosed that his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, lawmakers in both the senate and house of representatives, as well as all state assembly lawmakers, have decamped to the APC.

Similarly, Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom directed all commissioners and political appointees to defect with him from the PDP to the APC or resign from their positions.

Political analysts expect more defections to be announced, but concerns linger over a situation where the APC dominates in all 36 states across the federation, giving way to a one-party system.

Speaking on Saturday, July 5, 2025, at the unveiling of the 31st edition of his annual faith-based publication titled ‘Warnings To The Nations', the foremost cleric cautioned the President Tinubu-led APC that 2027 'may not be wholly about defections'. The unveiling of the prophecy book was attended by .

The preacher tagged his fresh message "special prophetic warnings".

Primate Ayodele said:

“APC will not care, but when they lose, they will now care. They are careless now, they may lose this election. Tinubu may not realise that many things will be used against him. Forget about the number of governors that are crossing to the APC. That crossing is not the answer now.”

He added:

“Tinubu must brace up. All these people (the defectors), they are deceiving him.

"Tinubu should not think the way it is; a lot of forces are fighting the ruling party. He must not think it is well. Don't be deceived. He should forget about the number of people coming to his party.

"They want to use six things to destroy Tinubu's government: security, economy, ethnicity, energy, creation of states, employment, and youth development."

Earlier, reported that Primate Ayodele predicted that Atiku Abubakar would be picked as the candidate of the anti-President Tinubu coalition.

Ayodele ruled out the possibility of coalition members like Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai emerging as the group's presidential candidate with respect to the 2027 election.

Source: Legit.ng