2027 Election: Bolaji Abdullahi Faults The Economist’s Tinubu Report

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected a recent The Economist report suggesting that President Bola Tinubu could win another term in 2027, with the party’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, describing the report as “poor journalism”.

The publication had suggested that Tinubu remained capable of retaining the presidency despite concerns among Nigerians over insecurity and economic hardship.

Speaking during an interview with Trust TV, Abdullahi questioned the basis for treating the report as an electoral forecast, arguing that its publication by a respected international outlet did not automatically validate its conclusions.

“I’m embarrassed the way we are elevating a mere story to the level of an electoral projection, and if this were a logic class, then we would be guilty of what is called argumentum ad veracundiam,” he said.

According to Abdullahi, the term refers to an appeal to authority, which he said was being applied by those who assumed the report must be credible simply because it appeared in The Economist.

“I read that story, and I think even as a piece of journalism it’s poor journalism. The fact that it’s published by The Economist does not excuse the fact that it is poor journalism,” Abdullahi said.

He particularly challenged the report’s reliance on interviews conducted in Borno, arguing that speaking to a limited number of people in one location could not provide a reliable basis for assessing political sentiment across Nigeria.

“How do I mean? When you sit in one place in Borno, and probably Borno town, just the town, then you spoke to a couple of people and used that to extrapolate for the entire country, that’s not journalism,” he said.

Abdullahi, who previously worked as an editor at ThisDay newspaper, said he would have sent such a report back to a reporter for further work.

“That’s not the way we do this work. And like I said on a different TV platform yesterday, if a reporter brought that to me as an editor, when I was at ThisDay newspaper, I would throw it back at him and say it’s lazy reporting,” he said.

Asked whether he was describing The Economist as a lazy publication, the ADC spokesperson said his criticism was limited to the specific report.

“I’m saying that that story is poor journalism, and it cannot be excused just because it was published by The Economist,” he said.

The criticism comes as political activities intensify ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with political parties and other actors increasingly challenging reports and projections about the likely outcome of the contest.

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