2027: Peter Obi’s one-term pact will shortchange Ndigbo — Presidency

The Presidency has again reacted to the trending media interview granted to Channels Television last Sunday by the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi.

Speaking on the live programme, Politics Today, the former Anambra State governor explained his willingness to serve only one four-year term, instead of the two-term, eight-year tenure permitted by the Constitution for a sitting president.

Checks revealed that the former presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, who is from the North-West and is reportedly being considered as Peter Obi’s running mate for the next general election, is already being touted as Obi’s successor in 2031 if the NDC wins the 2027 presidential election.

Reacting to the remarks by the NDC presidential candidate, Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), said Obi’s willingness to serve only one term was a personal arrangement that would shortchange the South-East’s long-standing quest for the presidency.

“Since the return of democratic politics in 1979, every serious attempt by an Igbo politician to reach the highest office in the land has fallen short. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe tried under the Nigerian People’s Party. Dr Alex Ekwueme came close within the PDP structure before the 1999 election, only for the political tide to shift decisively in favour of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Ditto for Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who came second to late President Umaru Yar’Adua during the 2007 PDP presidential primaries. Other Igbo aspirants have made attempts since then, but none has crossed the final line.

“That history is not a small matter. It represents decades of aspiration, negotiation, disappointment, and political recalibration. The desire for an Igbo presidency is therefore bigger than Peter Obi. It is bigger than any one politician, party, campaign slogan, or social media movement. It is a national question that requires patience, alliance-building, strategic discipline, and broad acceptance across Nigeria’s major political blocs.

“This is why Obi’s reported willingness to accept a one-term arrangement should worry serious-minded observers. If Ndigbo have waited this long for the presidency, should their most visible aspirant be negotiating a four-year tenancy in Aso Rock as though the matter is a personal career bargain? Did he consult widely with Igbo political, traditional, business, and intellectual stakeholders before entering such conversations? Did he ask whether a single term satisfies the historic demand for full political inclusion, or did he simply calculate what works best for his own ambition?

“The question becomes even more relevant when placed against the current political cycle. After eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari from the North, the presidency returned to the South in 2023 through President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

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The broad political understanding in many quarters is that the South should ordinarily complete eight years before power returns to the North. President Tinubu is currently serving his first term and is seeking a second term in 2027. In that context, Obi’s reported pact raises a strategic dilemma for southern politics and, more specifically, for the South-East.”

Nkwocha argued that an Obi/Kwankwaso ticket would not gain enough support in the South-West and the North, claiming it lacks national appeal. He further described it as a poor bargain for the South-East.

“Should the South-East stake its historic presidential aspiration on a hurried four-year term, or should Ndigbo pursue a broader, more patient, and more sustainable national negotiation that can produce a presidency with stronger legitimacy and a fuller mandate when the political conditions become more favourable?

“No serious student of Nigerian politics should pretend that the presidency is won by enthusiasm alone. It is won through structure, numbers, alliances, timing, regional understanding, and trust. Obi’s 2023 performance showed that he could energise a movement, especially among young voters and urban citizens. But it also showed the limits of a campaign that could not sufficiently penetrate the North, did not command the South-West, and relied heavily on emotional momentum rather than durable political machinery.

“For Obi to become president, he would need far deeper support in the North and a meaningful opening in the South-West. At the moment, that path remains narrow. President Tinubu has spent decades building relationships across northern political, religious, business, and traditional networks. He did not begin his northern outreach on the eve of an election. He invested in alliances long before many of his opponents understood the weight of such groundwork. Obi, by contrast, appears to have turned to the North only after discovering that online enthusiasm does not automatically translate into national victory.

“Even the reported alliance with Kwankwaso is not the magic wand some of Obi’s supporters imagine it to be. Kwankwaso is a significant political figure with a defined base, especially in Kano, but it is doubtful that he possesses the northern reach required to deliver Obi to the presidency. If the price of that limited support is a four-year concession, then Obi may have accepted a poor bargain and dressed it up as strategy.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Igbo presidency is not impossible. It is possible, legitimate, and desirable within the framework of national inclusion. But it cannot be achieved through emotional blackmail, hurried bargains, or political shortcuts that isolate the South-East from the major blocs whose support will be necessary. It must be negotiated with seriousness. It must be accepted by a meaningful section of the South-West and the North. It must be built on trust, timing, competence, and national persuasion.

“That is why Obi may still have a more honourable path before him. He can choose to place the collective interest of Ndigbo above his personal ambition. More importantly, he can support President Tinubu’s completion of the South’s turn in 2027, work with other Igbo leaders to deepen negotiations across the country, and help prepare the ground for a stronger Igbo presidential bid in the future. Such a move would require sacrifice, but politics at its noblest level is not always about who contests now. Sometimes it is about who helps create the conditions for a more sustainable victory later.”