The repeated claim by Peter Obi that he won the 2023 presidential election has drawn a fresh response from the Presidency, which accused the former Anambra State governor of refusing to accept the judgment that settled the election dispute.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, described Obi’s position as a sign of “political arrogance”.
The aide said the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) was living in what he called a political fantasy.
Dare said Obi could not continue to claim victory after the Supreme Court had delivered its final judgment on the 2023 presidential election.
“Mr. Peter Obi is fat on ambition but drunk on political arrogance.”
“Peter Obi wallows freely in a political fantasy land. To still insist he won the presidential election after the country’s highest court, the Supreme Court, delivered a final judgment is clear hallucination.
“Who imbued him with the power to concede or not? He lacks such power. Only the Nigerian people have the power of the votes. And in 2027, they will deliver their votes massively for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, leaving no room for the kind of antics Peter Obi is already front-loading.”
Dare’s comments came after Obi, while speaking during an interview on Arise TV, again maintained that he won the 2023 election, despite saying that he would accept the outcome of the 2027 presidential election if it is conducted freely, fairly and credibly.
Obi said he would have no difficulty conceding defeat if Nigerians freely chose another candidate, stressing that respect for the voters’ decision was part of democratic practice.
“If the election is free, fair and credible, I will because it’s an election. It’s the people that would say who they want to serve, and I will respect the will of the people; that’s democracy,” he said.
However, he immediately reaffirmed his position on the 2023 contest, saying he would continue to maintain that he won the election.
“I did, and I will maintain that as long as I live that I won the 2023 election. Those who conducted it know the records; they know why there was a glitch and what happened.”
Obi was the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, which was won by Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Obi and the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar challenged the result at the courts, but the Supreme Court ultimately upheld Tinubu’s victory.
Despite the legal outcome, Obi has continued to insist that the election results did not reflect what he believed happened at the polls.
During the Arise TV interview, the NDC candidate also spoke about his qualifications and his argument that Nigerians should look beyond ethnicity and religion when choosing their next president.
He said competence should be the major consideration in the 2027 election, pointing to his educational and professional background as evidence of his preparedness for the presidency.
“Election should not be driven by tribe or religion. Today, in terms of qualification, I’m qualified to be president of Nigeria. I have the competence; I have been all over the world studying what it takes to be president of a country, and I know what I can do to turn around this country in the right direction,” he said.
Obi further listed institutions where he said he had studied, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia and Kellogg.
“You can look at our qualification in terms of training. I’ve been to the best schools from all over the world, from Oxford to Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia, and Kellogg, and I’ve been everywhere, and every certificate I’m showing you is the way it is. If they find anyone wrong, I will drop from the race,” he added.
He also questioned Nigeria’s long history of older politicians occupying the presidency while young people are repeatedly told that they are the leaders of tomorrow.
“Since 1960, nobody born outside 1960 has been president of Nigeria. This is 66 years of independence; no other country in the world has had this happen to, and they tell youths they’re the leaders of tomorrow,” Obi said.
The former Anambra governor has also been outlining some of the policies he would pursue if elected president in 2027. On the foreign exchange reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration, Obi said he would not reverse the floating of the naira but would concentrate on increasing productivity so that the currency could become stronger.
“There’s one – the floating of the Naira. I’m not going to defend it. But I’m going to put productivity to make it more valuable to the people,” he said.
The naira float was introduced by the Tinubu administration in June 2023 as part of wider foreign exchange reforms aimed at removing multiple exchange rates and allowing market forces to play a greater role in determining the value of the currency.