The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has said that former Anambra State governor and ex–Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is politically stranded and unlikely to contest the 2027 general election on the platform of any party.

 

Bwala stated that Obi would neither emerge as a presidential nor vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) or any other political party ahead of the next election cycle.

 

Speaking during an interview on The Clarity Zone Podcast, the presidential aide argued that Obi has lost the political support and momentum that propelled him into national prominence during the 2023 presidential election.

 

According to Bwala, many of the individuals and groups that once worked with Obi have since abandoned him, leading to a collapse of the political structure he built after the last general election.

 

“After the election, he lost everybody he was leading. He had members in the House of Representatives. How many are there in the National Assembly?” Bwala asked.

 

He further claimed that Obi no longer commands significant influence within Nigeria’s political space, adding that candidates Obi supported in various elections after 2023 failed to secure victory.

 

“The only governor he had… is the governor with him or with us? In fact, I have not seen one that identifies with him at the moment,” Bwala said.

 

“All the elections he has gone across Nigeria supporting candidates… all of them failed.”

 

Bwala also criticised Obi’s supporters, popularly known as Obidients, accusing them of frequently attacking political opponents on social media while overlooking Obi’s own political history.

 

He described Obi as hypocritical on the issue of party loyalty, pointing to his movement across several political parties over the years.

 

“The army of Trojans that he has on social media, they attack people. They say you are two-faced, that you change party,” Bwala said.

 

“But when you say their master and hero has been changing party like a player in the Premier League changes clubs every season, they don’t like it.”

 

Listing Obi’s political journey, Bwala noted that the former governor moved from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), returned to the PDP, and later joined the Labour Party.

 

“He started with PDP, then went to APGA. In APGA, he came back to PDP. From PDP, he went to Labour,” he said.

 

According to Bwala, Obi is now caught between political uncertainty and lacks a clear platform ahead of 2027.

 

“Right now, when you hear people talk about being between the devil and the deep blue sea, he is between ADC and Labour,” he stated.

 

However, Peter Obi has repeatedly stated that he intends to contest the 2027 presidential election strictly as a presidential candidate and not as a vice-presidential running mate. His supporters have also insisted that they will leave the ADC if the party fails to give Obi its presidential ticket.