Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has said that former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, will not emerge as either the presidential or vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress.
Bwala described Obi as politically stranded.
He made the remarks during an interview on The Clarity Zone Podcast, where he argued that Obi lacks the political capacity to lead or coordinate any coalition movement, including serving as director-general of such an alliance.
According to the presidential aide, Obi has lost control of the political structure he built after the 2023 general election and no longer holds significant influence within Nigeria’s political space.
“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 raised doubts about Obi’s current political relevance, noting that the former Labour Party presidential candidate no longer enjoys the backing of sitting governors or elected officials.
“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,” he said.
Bwala also claimed that candidates supported by Obi in subsequent elections across the country failed to achieve success.
“All the elections he has gone across Nigeria supporting candidates… all of them failed,” he added.
The presidential aide criticised Obi’s supporters on social media, accusing them of attacking political opponents while ignoring what he described as Obi’s history of frequent party defections.
“The army of Trojans that he has on social media attacks people. They say you are two-faced, that you change parties,” 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.”
Bwala accused Obi of inconsistency in party loyalty, listing his movement from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, back to the PDP, and later to 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.
He added that Obi is now politically stranded. “Right now, when you hear people talk about being between the devil and the deep blue sea, he is between ADC and Labour,” Bwala stated.
Bwala insisted that Obi would not secure the ADC presidential or vice-presidential ticket and would end up contesting on a different political platform.
“He will not be the presidential candidate, he will not be the vice-presidential candidate. Peter Obi is going to run on a platform other than Labour and other than ADC,” he said.
The presidential aide further predicted that Obi would not secure even a quarter of the votes he received in the 2023 presidential election, where he polled 6,101,533 votes and finished third behind the candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
Bwala said Obi’s political rise was the result of a temporary opportunity rather than lasting grassroots support, describing him as “an actor” whose popularity was built on “make-believe” rather than political reality.
