The Presidency has criticised former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi over his recent television interview, describing the appearance as a public relations failure and accusing him of making misleading claims about his political career and the 2023 presidential election.
In a statement posted on X on Monday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said Obi’s interview on Channels Television failed to revive what he described as the politician’s declining 2027 presidential ambition.
Onanuga said he watched about 30 minutes of the interview before turning it off, arguing that the public reaction showed the appearance had not achieved its intended purpose.
He also rejected Obi’s comparison of his political journey with that of President Bola Tinubu.
According to Onanuga, Tinubu remained ideologically consistent despite moving through different political parties, progressing from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the Action Congress (AC), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and eventually the All Progressives Congress (APC).
By contrast, Onanuga alleged that Obi had repeatedly changed political parties to pursue personal political ambitions.
He noted that Obi was elected governor of Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), later defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he served as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election, before joining the Labour Party to contest the 2023 election.
The presidential aide further claimed that Obi distanced himself from the Labour Party after it became embroiled in internal leadership disputes and later aligned himself with the African Democratic Congress (ADC)-led coalition.
Onanuga also criticised Obi’s continued insistence that he won the 2023 presidential election despite the outcome declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission and upheld by the Supreme Court.
According to him, Channels Television presenter Seun Okinbaloye gave Obi an opportunity during the interview to clarify his position, but the former Anambra governor maintained that he had been denied victory.
“You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election. You came third,” Onanuga wrote, urging Obi to accept the court’s verdict and move on from the 2023 election rather than continue to claim victory.
