Lagos State Deputy Governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 governorship candidate, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, has explained the factors behind President Bola Tinubu’s narrow loss of Lagos State in the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking on TVC News’ Journalists’ Hangout programme (aired and clipped around 14 September 2026 under the title “Why President Tinubu Lost Lagos In 2023 – Obafemi Hamzat”), Hamzat said the outcome stemmed primarily from calculations around religion, geography and minority status in southern Nigeria.
He noted that after Tinubu secured the APC presidential nomination, the prevailing view was that a Muslim candidate from the South faced structural hurdles. “In 2023, we had at the national level when the president won the primaries of our party, the thinking, the calculation was that, oh, you have a minority from the south,” Hamzat said.
“If you look at the geography of Nigeria, South-South mainly Christians, South-East dominant Christians, South-West is where you have… a bit distributed. So, in the south, if you are a Muslim candidate as a president, you are a minority. So, the challenge is, can you have two minorities? And it was a big discussion. So, it was just a question of arithmetic and geography.”
Many voters, he added, feared the Muslim-Muslim ticket (Tinubu and Kashim Shettima) would translate into religion-based policies. “A lot of people thought that would translate to policies that, oh, it would… people would be touching. But we’ve now seen that it hasn’t translate to any policy. They are just doing their job.”
Hamzat pointed to appointments as evidence that Tinubu prioritises competence over identity: “Our president is somebody that looks for credible people, that looks for intelligent people. He is blinded to your ethnicity, is blinded to your religion.”
He cited examples of Christian appointees from the South-West in key roles such as the Minister of Finance and the Central Bank Governor, noting that some Muslim communities had even complained at the time that many South-West ministers were Christians.
He also recalled the difficult APC primary contest, referencing Tinubu’s “Emilokan” declaration, which showed the candidate was still consolidating support within the party.
In contrast, Hamzat argued that Tinubu’s prospects for 2027 are “far, far, far better.” The president now has a governing record voters can assess, and religious concerns have diminished as people observe interfaith cooperation in practice.
Drawing on Lagos experience, he highlighted the role of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), where Christians and Muslims jointly review policies. He cited the autopsy law as an example of successful consensus-building despite initial Muslim reservations about burial practices.
“I’m a candidate of our party. I’m a Muslim, but you see me going to churches. That is how Lagos is,” Hamzat said. “People see that we are all together.”
Official results from the Independent National Electoral Commission confirmed that Peter Obi of the Labour Party edged Tinubu in Lagos in 2023 by 582,454 votes to 572,606 — a margin of fewer than 10,000 votes in the president’s long-time political base.
Hamzat’s comments form part of broader discussion of Tinubu’s 2027 re-election outlook and his own candidacy for the Lagos governorship. The remarks align with contemporaneous reporting of the same interview across Nigerian outlets.
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