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Since the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, officially announced his defection to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Presidency has been jittery.
That Obi announced that he would contest the 2027 presidential election even made it worse. This is why at every opportunity, a barrage of attacks would be launched at him.
Last week, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, instead of telling Nigerians how his boss plans to tackle the myriad of problems confronting the country in 2026, dismissed Obi’s presidential ambition, adding that he would be denied both the presidential and vice-presidential tickets of the ADC.
Speaking during an interview on The Clarity Zone Podcast, Bwala claimed that Obi lacks the capacity to serve as director-general of any coalition movement.
The presidential aide also added that the former Anambra governor would eventually contest the next election on a different platform. He also accused Obi of hypocrisy over party loyalty, saying the former Anambra governor has switched political platforms repeatedly.
Also, following Obi’s criticism of the federal government and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over reports of unpaid match bonuses to the Super Eagles, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, took a swipe at former Anambra State governor
Onanuga described Obi as “Mr. Bitter Peter”, who politicised and weaponised every issue.
With the kind of interest the presidency has shown on Obi, it is very obvious that his defection and ambition are unsettling them.
This to many, is not surprising. Recall that in the 2023 election, while Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled a total of 6,984,520 votes, Obi came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Many had questioned why Atiku and Obi did not come together to form an alliance. They believe that if that had happened, the duo could have defeated Tinubu in the election
However, despite Obi’s third position, the APC-led government has remained jittery of his every political step. The launching of attacks on Obi is a calculated effort to diminish his political fortunes ahead of the 2027 elections.
What these aides should better do, is to tell their principal to govern Nigeria well.
