Primate Elijah Ayodele, leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, has predicted that President Bola Tinubu will face significant challenges in northern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 presidential election, including Abuja and the larger Federal Capital Territory. He said the president can only win Abuja through rigging.
The cleric made the predictions in a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, in which he claimed that support for Tinubu was declining across several northern states.
According to him, voters in the region were increasingly opposed to the president’s re-election bid, adding that the North would play a decisive role in determining the outcome of the presidential election. Ayodele also dismissed the reported choice of former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari as Tinubu’s campaign director-general, arguing that the appointment would not significantly improve the president’s electoral prospects in the region.
“The North hates Tinubu’s candidacy, and even with Yari as DG, they are adamant to vote for Tinubu because what is happening now is just nemesis. God has given the North the power to decide who rules Nigeria,” he said. The cleric identified Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto and Bauchi as states where he believed the ruling party would encounter difficulties in the forthcoming election.
He also described the political situation in the FCT as uncertain, alleging that Tinubu would struggle to win Abuja without electoral manipulation.
“Abuja too is shaking, and it can only be gotten through rigging. Yobe, Gombe and Kebbi are divided,” Ayodele said.
He, however, suggested that the president could still improve his chances. “It can still change if the president knows what to do, but they are shaking already. Yari cannot do the mending. It’s all about time, and the date for the election is not a victory date for Tinubu,” he added.
Ayodele also predicted that Nigeria’s name would eventually be changed, alleging that the country’s name had spiritual implications for governance and national development. He argued that the name had negative spiritual implications that could prevent successive governments from making the right decisions, even when leaders assumed office with good intentions.
According to him, a change of name would eventually occur when the country’s leaders gained the spiritual understanding he said was necessary to recognise the problem.
“The name Nigeria is affecting the leadership of this great nation. It will eventually be changed when God opens the eyes of some leaders. The name is contaminated and has serious spiritual implications on the nation,” he said. “The name doesn’t have a good aura and will cause setbacks. You may not understand, but when it’s time, people will know better.”