Stop dreaming of a victory you never had — Onanuga tells Obi
By Ismail Azeez
Spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Bayo Onanuga has urged the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi to stop dreaming over victory he never had in the 2023 Presidential elections.
Onanuga, in a statement was reacting to Obi’s appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, where he discussed his political career and the 2027 presidential race.
He argued that while Tinubu had remained within the progressive political bloc throughout his career from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and eventually the All Progressives Congress (APC), Obi had repeatedly moved between parties for personal political ambition.
He said Obi was elected governor of Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) before defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he became Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election.
According to him, “Obi later left the PDP for the Labour Party ahead of the 2023 election and has now aligned with the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) after disagreements within the opposition coalition.”
“Having watched Peter Obi’s interview on Channels TV on Sunday for about 30 minutes, I wasted no time tuning off. 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.”
“Two issues caught my attention while I watched him.”
“First, when his interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye, questioned him about his political nomadism, he tried to make the question a non-issue, saying, with a smirk on his face, that he has not done anything different from what President Bola Tinubu has done in his political odyssey.”
“No, Mr Obi. Tinubu has not been jumping from one ideologically different party to another. Since he joined party politics in 1991/92, Tinubu has stayed the progressive path all the way. 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.”
“When the election of June 12, 1993 was annulled, Tinubu joined the struggle for de-annulment. 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.”
“With the AD still in crisis, Tinubu founded a new party, the Action Congress, taking a large number of the AD members to the new platform. Babatunde Fashola, Kayode Fayemi, and Rauf Aregbesola contested on this platform in 2007.”
“The AC became Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) for the 2011 election. In 2013, the party entered into merger talks 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) to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
“The second issue is that Seun gave you a golden opportunity to redeem yourself in respect of the outcome of the 2023 election.”
“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of your defeat. Stop dreaming of a victory you never had.”
“You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election. You came third, and if not for the bloc vote from your ethnic group, you would have finished a distant third. Seun pointedly asked whether you believed the election was rigged against you. You fell into his trap by agreeing. You performed well in the election, no doubt, as a politician with little political structure across the states apart from your vocal supporters on X, Instagram, and Facebook. But I was utterly surprised that, more than three years after the Supreme Court dismissed your petition, you are still in denial about the outcome and continue to nurse the delusion that you won the election, echoing the sentiments of your supporters on the streets,” he said.