2027: Why the North Cannot Trust Peter Obi – Northern Stakeholder

Former Secretary-General of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, has said that the North cannot trust former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to serve only one term if elected president in 2027.

Speaking in an interview, Sani argued that Obi’s intentions are doubtful despite suggestions he might limit himself to one term to balance the regional political unwritten agreement.

Obi, who is currently involved with the opposition coalition led by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has not ruled out running again under the Labour Party despite the ongoing leadership crisis within the party.

However, Sani said that the political dynamics ahead of 2027 do not favour Obi, especially as many in the North believe that the South, having produced President Bola Tinubu, should not retain power beyond one term.

According to him, unless President Tinubu performs very poorly, the North is more likely to support him for a second term rather than back Obi. He recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan had once pledged to serve only one term but later reneged on that promise.

“The North cannot trust Peter Obi that he will do one term. You would recall President Jonathan pledged to do one term but reneged,” he said.

Recall that Obi managed a poor performance in the 2023 presidential election across most northern states. Despite his national appeal, he secured only 5 percent of the votes in the North-West and about 9 percent in the North-East. In the North-West, he polled roughly 350,000 votes out of over 6.7 million cast. In the North-East, his total was about 315,000. These figures are in contrast to his performance in southern states, where he won convincingly.

In the North-Central region, Obi performed slightly better, winning states like Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa, with 466,000 votes in Plateau and 308,000 in Benue. However, he still trailed Bola Tinubu overall in the zone.

Across all 19 northern states, Peter Obi amassed about 2,080,847 votes, which was far behind those of the eventual winner, Tinubu and first runner-up, Atiku Abubakar.