PETER OBI Begins Work On His 2027 Ambition

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, in last years general elections will be contesting again in 2027. And this is authoritative.

City People can authoritatively reveal that Peter Obi has begun work on his 2027 project. And he has been consulting widely. He has been holding talks with top politicians from various parties and he has suddenly become very visible on the national scene, visiting key figures and attending major events and parties.

Of course, no one is sure of which party platform he will use. Will he run on the platform of the Labour Party which is currently facing serious internal crisis or he will go back to PDP, which has become very weak. Peter Obi is keeping his cards close to his chest.

What he is doing now is going to the right places at the right time and making the nest use of the photo ops it provides him.

Recently, he visited an Emir up North, and made generous donations. He was at Senator Gbenga Daniel’s wife’s 60th birthday in Lagos and made a surprise showing there. He was at Marakas Islamic Schools in Agege recently and worshipped with them.

Everywhere he has been to, he has received overwhelming acknowledgement, giving him hope that if he runs again, he would win. He has begun correcting all the mistakes he made the last time.

This time around, he is seriously reaching out to the North and South-West.

Not only does he show up in these geo-political zones, he usually appears in Northern caps up North and Yoruba caps in the South-West.

Suddenly, Peter Obi has become very intentional and deliberate about his moves. He knows that his victory in the South East is assured and he only needs to win some more votes in the South West & North to give him the desired number of votes needs.

But will this assure him victory over Pres Bola Tinubu who has also begun work on his 2027 project.

He has paid his dues, politically Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, born on 19 July 1961 is a consumate politician, statesman, and businessman who served as Governor of Anambra State from June 2007 to March 2014. He had previously held the position from March to November 2006 and February to May 2007. Obi was the Labour Party candidate for the Presidential election in Nigeria in the 2023, after defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He is from Onitsha, in Anambra State. He graduated from Christ the King College, Onitsha. He proceeded to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1984 for his tertiary education.  Obi contested for Governor of Anambra State in 2003 under the flagship of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), but was defeated by Chris Ngige.

In 2006, the election of Ngige was nullified; declaring Obi, the winner of the 2003 election, and he assumed office in March 2006. Shortly after, he was impeached in November of same year by the Anambra State House of Assembly, led by the Speaker, Mike Balonwu. However, his impeachment was overturned and he returned to office in February 2007. Obi was later removed from office after the 2007 Anambra State gubernatorial election, but the Judiciary again intervened by ruling that “he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term”. In 2010, he was re-elected into his second term as the governor of the state.

After leaving office in 2014, he decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2019, he was selected as the PDP vice presidential candidate in the presidential election running along side with Atiku Abubakar–the presidential candidate, but they lost to Muhammadu Buhari and Vice president Yemi Osinbajo. In 2022, Obi ran for president, initially under PDP, but defected to Labour Party in May 2022 to obtain its nomination. Obi’s presidential campaign has been described as populist and performed well among the Youths, who have been nicknamed “Obidients”.

In the general election, he lost to Pres. Bola Tinubu. The Labour Party, along with several other opposition parties, sued to overturn Tinubu’s victory, alleging voting irregularities. Their arguments were rejected in court.

Obi was born to devout Christian family of Igbo descent. Obi attended Christ the King College, Onitsha, where he completed his secondary school education. In 1980, he was admitted to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he graduated with B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy in 1984.

Obi is a businessman who has held several leadership positions in private establishments in Nigeria. He has served Next International Nigeria Ltd. He became the Chairman and Director of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Future View Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Ltd, Chams Nigeria Ltd, Data Corp Ltd and Card Centre Ltd. He was regarded as the youngest Chairman of Fidelity Bank Nigeria.

He has also paid his dues in Politics. In 2003, Obi contested for the Anambra State Governorship Election as the primary candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); and his counterpart Chris Ngige of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was declared the winner by the INEC.

After 3 years of litigation, Ngige’s victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2006, and Obi assumed office on 17 March 2006. After seven months of leadership, he was impeached by the Anambra State House of Assembly, led by the Speaker Mike Balonwu,and was replaced by Virginia Etiaba who was his deputy. Thus, making her the first female governor in Nigeria. Obi successfully challenged his impeachment and was re-instated as the governor on 9 February 2007 by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu. Etiaba handed power back to him after the court ruling.

After the May 2007 declaration of Andy Uba by the electoral body, as the winner following the General Election. Obi left the office, but returned with charges contending that the four-year tenure he had won in the 2003 election only started to run when he took office in March 2006. On 14 June 2007, Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Obi’s contention and returned Obi to office. This brought to an abrupt end the tenure of Obi’s successor, Andy Uba, whose 14 April 2007 election the Supreme Court nullified on the grounds that Obi’s four-year tenure should have remained undisturbed until March 2010.

On 7 February 2010, INEC declared Obi the winner of the 2010 Anambra State Gubernatorial election. He defeated Charles Soludo, former Governor of CBN (and incumbent governor of Anambra State).

On 17 March 2014, Obi’s tenure ended after the election winner, Willie Obiano was inaugurated and assumed office. After leaving office in 2014, Obi gained new status as “an advocate for good governance” and national political figure after decamping to the Peoples Democratic Party in 2014.

After the 2015 General Election, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Obi as Chairman of the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On 12 October 2018, Obi was named as the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate in the 2019 presidential election. Obi opposed proposals for a standardized national minimum wage, arguing that different states should have different minimum wages. The Abubakar/Obi ticket came second.

On 24 March 2022, Obi declared his intention to run for President of Nigeria under the party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Afterwards, he pulled out, announcing that he will be running under Labour Party instead. Peter Obi wrote to the leaders of PDP on 24 May to resign his membership. He reportedly complained of massive bribing of delegates and vote buying during the party’s presidential primary, citing the existence of a party clique collaborating against him.

During the 2023 Presidential election campaign, people under 30 proved to be some of the biggest supporters of Obi, showed their support via social media.

Young supporters of Obi’s campaign were generally called the “Obidients”, which was coined from his name “Obi”. In a Business Day opinion article, Chikwurah Isiguzo argued that:

[The Obidients] are attracted by Peter Obi’s ideology of frugality, economic production rather than the ostentatious consumerism and waste, and resourceful management and investment in key sectors, for economic growth and development.

Political commentators have generally argued that Obi’s third party candidacy appeals to young voters dissatisfied with the two major parties, which has resulted in the “biggest political movement in recent Nigerian history.” With his core message of prudence and accountability, Obi has managed to gain the backing of voters for his previously largely unknown Labour Party into a strong third force against two political heavyweights, APC and PDP. Before campaigns were officially kicked off, Obi’s supporters held a series of One Million Man Marches in several Nigerian cities including Makurdi, Calabar, Lafia, Port Harcourt, Afikpo, Owerri, Enugu, Auchi, Abuja, Kano, Ilorin, Abakaliki and Ibadan. The marches were not part of the official campaigns; as they were led by volunteer Obi supporters and not Obi’s in-house team or political party. The marches experienced massive turnouts.

Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education in Nigeria, stated that Nigerian women are more inclined toward the potential presidency of Obi[clarification needed] in an interview with Channels TV.

Physician Doyin Okupe initially was the temporary running mate of Obi until a substantive candidate could be selected.In the run-up to the final selection of a running mate, media outlets reported that there was an effort to have former Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna State serve as Obi’s running mate.

On 8 July 2022, Obi unveiled his running mate, Senator for Kaduna North Senatorial District Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed. Speaking on his choice of the vice presidential candidate, he stated:

This is our right to secure, unite and make Nigeria productive. And you can’t do that without having people who have similar visions, ideas and are prepared for the task. So, I have the honour today to present to you, God willing, Nigeria’s next vice president in the person of Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.

The results were announced on 1 March 2023. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress party, was named the president-elect with 8.79 million votes. Obi received 6.1 million votes, and won in both Lagos and Abuja. This put Obi in third place behind winner Bola Tinubu and People’s Democratic Party nominee Atiku Abubakar. Due to the elections being rife with several allegations, reports and evidence of voter manipulation, disenfranchisement and rigging, Obi announced that he would challenge the election results, stating that, “We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians”.

Obi is a practicing Catholic. He is married to Margaret Brownson Obi (née Usen) since 1992 and they have two children.