Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has said he will contest the 2027 presidential race despite what he described as mounting political pressure and the growing dominance of the ruling All Progressives Congress among state governors.
Speaking on Friday in Nimo, in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State, Obi insisted he would not be intimidated by political realignments that have seen the governing party expand its control across the country.
He made the remarks during an empowerment programme organised by George Ozodinobi, the member representing the Dunukofia/Njikoka/Anaocha federal constituency in the House of Representatives of Nigeria.
Addressing supporters, the former governor of Anambra said recent constitutional debates and political manoeuvres were partly aimed at preventing him from contesting the presidency again.
“You all know that I am now in the African Democratic Congress,” Obi said. “People have been asking why I left the Labour Party, but I told them that we had been in court over leadership issues and were securing favourable judgments. Yet the Independent National Electoral Commission refused to recognise us.”
He claimed the electoral body later acknowledged the same court orders after his departure from the party at the end of 2025.
“You see all the things they have been tinkering with in the constitution; some of them are because they do not want me to contest,” he added. “But I want to tell them that with their 30 governors, they should make the election free and fair and see who wins.”
Obi declared he would remain in the race regardless of political pressure.
“I want to announce to you all that no matter what they do, I must contest the election,” he said. “Let them declare a free and fair contest, bring the ball to the middle of the field and declare it started, and let’s see what happens.”
The former governor also used the occasion to criticise Nigeria’s political and economic conditions, arguing that the country’s system had “collapsed”.
“Nigeria has collapsed totally, and there is a need to redeem it,” he said. “I have never been desperate to be president; rather, I am desperate to see a Nigeria that works.”
He also lamented what he described as deepening inequality, accusing wealthy Nigerians of greed and saying the country’s political structure disadvantaged the poor.
“This country is skewed against the poor,” Obi said. “We want a country where the son of a nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody.”
He commended Ozodinobi for organising the empowerment programme, arguing that initiatives aimed at supporting citizens were evidence of why competent leaders should be elected to public office.
