Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has said that former Anambra State governor Peter Obi will neither emerge as the presidential nor vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Speaking during a media interview, Bwala argued that Obi lacks the political capacity to serve as director-general of any coalition movement, adding that the former Labour Party presidential candidate would ultimately contest the next election on a different political platform.
According to Bwala, Obi lost control of the political structure he built after the 2023 general election, including his influence within the National Assembly.
“After the election, he lost everybody he was leading,” Bwala said. “He had members in the House of Representatives. How many are left in the National Assembly today? The only governor he had—where is that governor now? I haven’t seen a single one that openly identifies with him at the moment.”
He further claimed that candidates Obi publicly supported in various elections across the country all failed, insisting that Obi’s political relevance has since diminished.
Bwala also criticised Obi’s supporters on social media, accusing them of aggressively attacking perceived opponents while ignoring what he described as Obi’s own history of frequent party defections.
He accused the former Anambra governor of hypocrisy on the issue of party loyalty, noting that Obi had moved across several political parties over the years.
“He started in the PDP, moved to APGA, returned to PDP, and later went to the Labour Party,” Bwala said. “Now, he is caught between ADC and Labour.”
The presidential aide insisted that Obi would not emerge as either the presidential or vice-presidential candidate on the ADC platform and predicted that he would eventually run on a party other than Labour or ADC.
Bwala further claimed that Obi would not secure even a quarter of the votes he polled in the 2023 presidential election.
Obi, who was the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the last general election, garnered 6,101,533 votes, finishing third behind the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Bwala concluded by describing Obi as “an actor” in Nigeria’s political space, arguing that his political rise was driven by a temporary opportunity rather than sustained grassroots support.