By Joachim OLUMBA
On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the forthcoming 2027 general election, joined admirers and well-wishers of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State in publicly extending best wishes to the latter on the occasion of his 66th birthday. Ironically, the frontline presidential hopeful did not receive any message of goodwill from the governor when he celebrated his own birthday almost ten days earlier.
This, as well as the governor’s bitter disposition towards Mr. Obi and undisguised stern opposition to his presidential aspiration, did not deter the latter from sending the governor message of warm felicitations on the occasion of his latest birthday. This visibly defines the urbane, liberal and tolerant character of the NDC presidential hopeful.
It is on record that, Prof Soludo and other South East governors (with the exception of Dr. Alex Otti of Abia State), and all the top echelons of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the federal and state levels, including President Bola Tinubu, did not bother to extend a message of goodwill to the erstwhile two-term governor of Anambra State and the NDC presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, on the special occasion of his 65th birthday. They all simply waved off the monumental event as if it did not matter, in a way that did not disguise their animosity to the extensively admired presidential candidate of the NDC.
Perhaps, it was the propensity for the public to denote or infer some form of close affinity to the former Anambra State governor who is visibly the greatest threat to the reelection of the incumbent president in the forthcoming polls, that scared them from couching even terse messages of goodwill for Mr. Obi’s birthday. Not even the governor of his home state, Professor Charles Soludo, deemed it necessary to reach out to one of his predecessors on the special occasion.
This looks simple and inanely. However, it certainly speaks volumes of the crude bitterness and immaturity beclouding the senses of the foremost political leaders of the South East. It buttresses the depth of acrimony that these leaders are nursing in their minds against Mr. Peter Obi. It shows how much of a threat that they perceive of not only their fellow Igbo man, but a great and formidable political leader for that matter.
Speaking about this extremely nauseating poor attitude of Prof Soludo, this is indeed becoming quite familiar. Recently, the highly revered Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, marked the milestone of his 85th anniversary of birth. The governor of Abia State organised a birthday ceremony for him in the state capital, Umuahia. This was besides the main event which was held at the highbrow The Delborough Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos. His own governor did not participate in the high profile event attended by eminent personalities from across the country neither did he follow the footsteps of Gov Otti to celebrate the famous royal father from his state.
Yet, apart from being a foremost traditional ruler in Anambra State, the 21st Obi of Onitsha, is a most accomplished figure in the country’s organised private sector. He’s one of the greatest personalities from the state. Unfortunately, Soludo treated his 85th birthday with virtual ignominy, like he did to Peter Obi’s 65th birthday.
In any case, the failure of the governors of South East states to identify with Mr. Peter Obi during his recent widely celebrated birthday is not actually the major reason for this article. I have attempted to bring it into focus merely to drive home the main subject of my attention here. It is to underscore the deep-rooted animosities and shenanigans surrounding the political relationship between Mr. Peter Obi and the demagogues of the South East, who are currently wining and dining together under the umbrella of the widely perceived inept and corrupt federal government of the APC.
Just as Nigerians in many parts of the country and beyond were celebrating Mr. Peter Obi’s recent birthday, and in the wake of the conspicuous and bewildering refusal of governors in the South East to identify with the celebration, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, came out to alert the public of a purported endorsement of the reelection bid of President Tinubu by all his colleagues in the zone. Gov. Alex Otti had since refuted that claim, at least, in a manner distancing himself from the so-called endorsement.
Uzodinma’s claim of endorsement of the candidacy of Tinubu by South East governors is nevertheless not a surprise, neither is it a source of worry for the vast majority of discerning people in the zone. In the first place, many of them had for long known where the governors stood in terms of who they would support. Most importantly, the people knew for certainty before now that it’s practically impossible for the governors to dictate to the average Igbo the political choices they must adopt.
Not when one of their own, a highly trusted, reliable, respected and cherished person is in the race. Therefore, the thought of governors of South East endorsing Bola Tinubu over Peter Obi is utterly and irredeemably dead at conception. It definitely cannot and will never work with the average Igbo voter.
The more the governors and other politically exposed persons in Igbo land are ganging up against the emergence of Peter Obi as president in 2027, the more Igbo people are gearing up to throw their support for him and to vehemently battle all those opposed to him. In fact, the determination of Igbo people to team up with Peter Obi’s supporters across the country is gaining heavy momentum by the day.
Instead of the efforts of these major political opponents of Obi yielding negative results to endanger his chances, his supporters across Igboland are more emboldened and engendered to go all out to throw their weights on his side to achieve victory with the collaboration of other Nigerians who are yearning for real and meaningful change. Therefore, the opposition of the governors and other henchmen of the APC in the South East is not actually giving the people any cause to worry about.
Igbo people are by nature Republicans. Many are also excessively selfish and greedy. That’s why you find so many of them not only opposing Mr. Peter Obi, but attacking him virulently and viciously. The likes of Dave Umahi, Charles Soludo, Senator Orji Kalu, Kenneth Okonkwo and co, have gone to great lengths to demonstrate their disdain for seeing Peter Obi become the next president of Nigeria. There’s virtually nothing they have not said in their bid to thwart his presidential ambition. Nearly all those who have closely observed their political trajectories are unanimous in their opinions that they are playing their cards against Obi for their selfish interests. Some of them do not want to have an Obi presidential ambition become a reality, as it would abort their own ambitions and might also put a seal to their seeming mercantile political careers.
You see many of them ferociously attacking Mr. Peter Obi and demonstrating unbridled desperation in the process. Prof Soludo and Engr. Dave Umahi- the arrogant and loquacious Obi critic, who styles himself as the lion of the South East- whatever the unjustifiable terminology means, have really taken their confrontation and opposition to the fringes of seeming hatred and disdainful irrationality.
All in a bid to maintain relevance and possibly keep his juicy ministerial portfolio in the next democratic dispensation, the “lord of Ebonyi politics” have made unspeakable statements against Mr. Peter Obi, including throwing uncanny challenge for a debate with the presidential candidate, even when he is not contesting any election. He seems to have found pleasure in preoccupying himself with the task of dragging down the fast rising popularity of the NDC presidential candidate. Perhaps, demarketing Peter Obi appears to be either an extension of the official responsibilities, or a sheer fantasy for the controversial former governor of Ebonyi State.
Indeed, because of their disdain for Peter Obi’s presidential ambition, Umahi and Gov Soludo have strongly and consistently advocated that it’s not the turn of the Igbo person to assume the office of President of Nigeria in 2027. Sadly, this same Umahi had brazenly called on Igbo people to support former President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection bid in 2019, claiming that he would handover to an Igbo man in 2023. Prince Arthur Eze had equally openly canvassed for Igbo people to concede their support in 2019 to Buhari, spuriously claiming that it was the only feasible path to an Igbo having his shot at Nigeria’s presidency in 2023. Meanwhile, that was a year Mr. Peter Obi was the vice-presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the presidential flag bearer. Eventually, 2023 general elections came and these men swallowed their pride and continued to root for a president of Nigeria from outside Igbo land. This was how they all lost their respect amongst the vast majority of Igbo people today.
Meanwhile, as these men are openly vigorously and bitterly campaigning against Peter Obi’s presidential project, most of their counterparts in the South East are subtly doing same through their aides and surrogates. The present gang up against Obi is not entirely strange. It happened in 2023, with lesser intensity. Perhaps, they had not given him any chance whatsoever of pulling up a strong performance in the presidential election of that year. Basically, because of the stunning outcome of the 2023 polls, the political merchants of the South East and their counterparts across the country are desperate and vicious to stop Mr. Peter Obi’s presidential run which has continued to gain great impetus instead.
The support being enjoyed by Mr. Obi across the country continues to stupefy his opponents in the ruling party and beyond. This is notwithstanding the concerted and comprehensive efforts being made by political stalwarts of the ruling party to stall his nationwide acceptance. His popularity has never waned despite the unrelenting attempts by presidential media aides, Gov. Monday Okpebholo, ex-Gov Nyesom Wike, former Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, Festus Keyamo, Reno Omokri, Femi Fani-Kayode, Ali-Modu Sheriff and countless others, including online campaigners, to militate against his surging nationwide inroads.
As the campaigns to destroy Peter Obi’s political prospects are being pursued across Igboland and beyond with relentless vigour by his opponents, Nigerians who are supporting him continue to grow in their large numbers. His vastly growing popularity is such that, apart from Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, no Igbo man, ever known in history, has garnered the magnitude of support enjoyed by Mr. Peter Obi across Igboland. Perhaps, there’s no gainsaying the fact, that Obi remains the most popular and acceptable presidential candidate of Igbo extraction in the country. In 2023, his popularity rather than the structure or strength of the Labour Party (LP) which he had joined barely six months to the election, took the party to record an unprecedented performance.
The LP, which was prior to the general election not in control of any constituency across the country, won elections at all levels with the exception of the office of president which results remained questionable to date, owing the unfortunate circumstances leading to ditching of online submission of polling units result sheets. That was the first time such a rare feat would be recorded in Nigeria’s political history. None of the Igbo political heavyweights, including Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, Chief Rochas Okorocha, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and others, who had attempted shots at the presidential race one way or the other, ever recorded the feat that Peter Obi did in 2023.
Despite the stiff opposition to his current aspiration, the coast seems to be getting even clearer as the next general election approaches. This is precisely why no other presidential candidate is attracting the attention of the ruling party as much as Mr. Obi. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the forthcoming election, is not receiving the kind of fierce and vicious attacks launched by the APC demagogues against Mr. Peter Obi. Ever since Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State declared his presidential interest, the ruling party has never been seen attacking him, despite coming from the same geopolitical zone as their candidate.
None of his fellow South West governors had once abused him or openly protested against his aspiration. Yoruba political elites have never been encountered in the public domain criticizing him for daring to contest in a presidential poll that Tinubu is also vying for reelection. The whole of the South West is calm over Gov. Makinde’s presidential ambition besides the abduction of school children and their teachers which unfortunately took place shortly after his declaration for the race. But Peter Obi’s case is entirely different. The governors in his zone with their acolytes and aides are on the prowl, acting as if they have been hired to drain his last energy with stiff opposition.
Fortunately, the teeming population of Nigerians who are supporting Peter Obi are not deterred one bit. They are more determined than ever to see a turnaround of the entrenched political order of corruption, self-centredness and backwardness facilitated by the country’s conventional political class. Most people, especially amongst the younger generation perceive Mr. Peter Obi as their only hope for achieving a new political trajectory of efficiency, prudence, accountability, compassion, rule of law, virile opposition and institutional transformation.
They see Peter Obi as possessing the right values to engineer in the country’s polity a new order that will extinguish the conception and conduct of political activities as veritable means of self-aggrandizement and wealth accumulation. This is precisely why the opposition against him by the ruling political class and established politicians is assuming ruthless intensity.
Nonetheless, ordinary Nigerians are gearing up for the battle which the candidate of the ruling party had promised. With the devastation of the economy and pervasive insecurity which have all conscripted Nigerians to unprecedented cum unbearable poverty, hardships and difficulties, 2027 general election promises to present a battleground between the common people and their heartless political leaders.
OLUMBA contributes this piece from Owerri, the heartbeat of Eastern Heartland.
