CITIZENS COMPASS—The plot to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been uncovered.
This was targeted at the 2027 general elections.
Except urgent measures are taken, the plot may come to pass as things have turned sour between Tinubu and some of his loyalists, many of whom have defected to the opposition movement.
One of them, former Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has openly declared that he and his new political family in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) are plotting to sack the president in Abuja and uproot his iron grip on Lagos by 2027.
Aregbesola, who served as Minister of Interior under Tinubu’s influence and once stood as a key figure in his Southwest political machinery, made his latest move to sack his erstwhile political patron at a Lagos gathering on Saturday.
The occasion marked the defection of Hon. Moshood Salvador’s Conscience Forum from the Labour Party into the ADC, an event which doubled as the 25th anniversary of the Forum.
The meeting, attended by ward and zonal leaders from all of Lagos’ 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs, was not just a welcoming party — it was framed as the birth of a new political insurgency aimed squarely at Tinubu’s dual power bases: the presidency in Abuja and his long-established fortress in Lagos.
“We will take Alausa; it’s a sure ticket for us,” Aregbesola declared, invoking Lagos’ seat of power. “With our resolve, it won’t be difficult at all to take over the seat of power. It’s a simple strategy: one person gets ten, and each of the ten also gets ten. “Once we do this, that’s the end of it. We will surely meet at Aso Rock Villa and produce the next president of the country.”
The strategy he outlined — “operation ten over ten” — reflects the grassroots mobilization model that once powered Tinubu’s dominance in Lagos. Ironically, it is now being redeployed against him by a former insider who knows the contours of his political machine.
For Aregbesola, the defection of Salvador and his Conscience Forum, said to have a membership strength of over 400,000 in Lagos, is a major coup. The Forum’s entry into the ADC bolsters his claim that a viable alternative structure is emerging to challenge the All Progressives Congress (APC), not just in Lagos but nationally.
Salvador did not mince words in dismissing the Labour Party, his former political home, as a failed experiment. “The Labour Party is no longer a party of the future. That is why we have chosen the ADC as the platform that can form a true coalition to change Nigeria,” he said.
Political observers note that the significance of Aregbesola’s posture goes beyond party realignments. It signals a calculated break from Tinubu, with whom relations soured during Aregbesola’s stormy years in Osun politics, particularly during his falling out with Tinubu-backed figures in the state APC. Now, standing on the platform of the ADC, Aregbesola appears determined to transform old grievances into a full-blown political rebellion.
For Lagosians, the drama is both familiar and unprecedented. Familiar, because Tinubu has faced many challenges to his Lagos dynasty over the years — from PDP heavyweights to Oba Akinolu’s royal interventions. Unprecedented, because this challenge is now coming from a former protégé who once helped build the very political structure he now vows to demolish.
With 2027 still two years away, the plotlines are already thickening. Can Aregbesola rally enough disenchanted politicians and grassroots groups to truly sack Tinubu’s dominance in Lagos? And can the ADC, still relatively small, morph into a credible national platform capable of mounting a serious challenge in Abuja?
What is clear is that Aregbesola has crossed the Rubicon. The former Tinubu loyalist has recast himself as the general of a new political insurgency, and in the high-stakes battlegrounds of Lagos and Abuja, the war drums for 2027 are already sounding.
In a chat with Citizens Compass, some members of a platform known as Tinubu for Eight years have said they are solidly behind Tinubu.
One of them, Mr Adediran Adedeji, said plans were underway to ensure that Tinubu returns for a second term.
—with additional information from –GWG
