Obi’s interview failed to revive his ‘ebbing 2027 ambition’—Onanuga says

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to the president, has described the Peter Obi’s interview on Channels Television on Sunday as a “PR disaster”.

In a post on his X handle on Monday, Onanuga said Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), had thought the interview would “re-energise his ebbing 2027 presidential ambition”, noting that it turned out otherwise.

“Having watched Peter Obi’s interview on Channels TV on Sunday for about 30 minutes, I wasted no time tuning off,” Onanuga wrote.

“If the political nomad thought the interview would re-energise his ebbing 2027 presidential ambition, it turned out to be a PR disaster, judging from the spate of reactions to the many lies he referenced.”

Onanuga faulted Obi for claiming there was no difference between his political journey and that of President Bola Tinubu when the interviewer questioned him on “his political nomadism”.

The presidential spokesperson argued that Tinubu has not jumped from one ideologically different party to another, as Obi had done.

“Since he joined party politics in 1991/92, Tinubu has stayed the progressive path all the way,” he said.

“He started with the Social Democratic Party and won an election to the Senate on the party’s platform, polling the highest vote ever by any candidate in the country.”

Onanuga added that when the June 12, 1993, election was annulled, Tinubu joined the struggle for the actualisation of the mandate.

“He didn’t collaborate with the military; he defied the junta, reconvened the National Assembly, joined the protests, went to detention, and when the country became too dangerous, he opted for exile, along with his family, where he continued the struggle against military dictatorship.”

“When Tinubu returned from exile in 1998, he joined the Alliance for Democracy and was elected the governor of Lagos in 1999. The AD, which Obasanjo wanted to decapitate, went into a factional crisis.

“Tinubu still won his 2003 election, his second term, with the INEC-recognised faction.”

Onanuga said while the AD was still in crisis, Tinubu founded the Action Congress (AC), taking many AD members to the new party, including Babatunde Fashola, Kayode Fayemi and Rauf Aregbesola, who later contested the 2007 elections on party’ platform.

According to him, the AC became Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) for the 2011 election before later metamorphosing into the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 after the merger with Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), New Nigeria Peoples Party, a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).

Onanuga said Tinubu remained true to his ideological convictions by staying on the same political path.

“He didn’t jump to the PDP in 2003, after he remained the last man standing, with fellow AD governors swept out of office by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s brazen rigging machine. Instead, he built a new party from the bottom up, which has grown like an oak tree from an acorn,” he said.

“Tinubu is unlike you, Peter Obi. You were elected Governor under the platform of APGA in 2007.

“You swore with your children and even by the hospital bedside of Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu that you would never leave the party. Not a man of your words, you abandoned APGA after your second term and joined the PDP. You were in the PDP when you ran with the perennial presidential contender and loser, Atiku Abubakar, in 2019.”

He added that Obi did not wait to rebuild the PDP after the loss but instead joined the Labour Party (LP) and contested the 2023 presidential election as the party’s candidate, where he came third behind Tinubu and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Onanuga also accused Obi of abandoning the LP after it became embroiled in a leadership crisis following the election.

“The Labour Party fell into a serious leadership crisis after the election, with campaign funds in your possession not fully accounted for. Instead of waiting to solve the crisis and rebuild it into a formidable group like a good leader would do, you again chickened out,” he said.

“You teamed up with Atiku to hijack the political group called African Democratic Congress, a special purpose vehicle. When you found that you would not be able to clinch the group’s presidential ticket in a free and fair primary election, you didn’t hesitate to jump ship to join the court-registered NDC, promoted by a former governor, Senator Seriake Dickson.

“It is not in doubt that if the NDC fails to deliver what you want, you are not far away from the exit door. You would shamelessly migrate to yet another party. You do not build; you always want to reap where you did not sow.”

Onanuga said the second issue that caught his attention was Obi’s response to questions on the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

“Seun gave you a golden opportunity to redeem yourself in respect of the outcome of the 2023 election. You lost, Peter,” he said.

“You didn’t win that election. You came third, and if not for the bloc vote from your ethnic group, you would have ended up a miserable third.

“You did well in the election, no doubt — a politician with no structure in the states, except the noisy followers on X, Instagram and Facebook.

“But I was utterly surprised that more than three years after the Supreme Court threw away your petition, you are still in denial of the loss, and you still nurse the delusion that you won the election, echoing the sentiment of your gullible followers on the streets.

“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had.”