The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has lashed out at the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, accusing him of political inconsistency and refusing to accept the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
Onanuga said Obi’s recent interview with Channels Television failed to revive his political fortunes, describing the interview as a “public relations disaster.”
He rejected Obi’s comparison of his political journey with that of President Bola Tinubu, insisting that the president has remained committed to progressive politics since the early 1990s despite changes in party platforms.
Onanuga, in a statement issued on Monday, July 27, 2026, said Tinubu moved from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and eventually the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing the transitions as part of a consistent ideological evolution rather than political defection.
“Tinubu has not been jumping from one ideologically different party to another. Since he joined party politics in 1991/92, Tinubu has stayed the progressive path all the way. He started with the Social Democratic Party and won an election to the Senate on the party’s platform, polling the highest vote ever by any candidate in the country,” Onanuga stated.
Onanuga contrasted this with Obi’s movement from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), arguing that Obi had repeatedly abandoned political parties instead of strengthening them.
The presidential spokesman stated that Obi failed to rebuild parties after electoral setbacks, accusing him of pursuing personal political interests over party development.
He said: “Tinubu remained true to his ideological persuasion: he stayed in the same lane. He didn’t jump to the PDP in 2003, after he remained the last man standing, with fellow AD governors swept out of office by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s brazen rigging machine. Instead, he built a new party from the bottom up, which has grown like an oak tree from an acorn.
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“Tinubu is unlike you, Peter Obi. You were elected Governor under the platform of APGA in 2007. You swore with your children and even by the hospital bedside of Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu that you would never leave the party. Not a man of your words, you abandoned APGA after your second term and joined the PDP. You were in the PDP when you ran with the perennial presidential contender and loser, Atiku Abubakar, in 2019.”
Onanuga faulted Obi for maintaining that he was denied victory in the 2023 presidential election despite the Supreme Court’s judgement affirming Tinubu’s election.
He urged the former Anambra State Governor to accept the outcome of the poll and move on, saying continued claims of electoral victory were inconsistent with the decisions of the courts.
“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had,” the presidential spokesman added.
