*Says “I’m Not Going To Sit In Abuja If There Are Problems In Zamfara”
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The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Mr Peter Obi, has said his party will build a system to transmit results directly from every polling unit to its own situation room during the 2027 general election, insisting the arrangement is not a parallel electoral commission but an assurance that only figures originating from polling units are announced.
Obi spoke in an extended interview on Arise News, part of the station’s presidential series, ahead of a poll the channel said is scheduled for 16 January 2027. He was questioned on his record, his party’s legal standing, his relationship with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the 1966 coup, subsidy removal, security, and whether a divided opposition can defeat President Bola Tinubu.
“Prepared To Die With Them”
Asked what he meant when he told a crowd in Port Harcourt that he was ready to die for his votes, Obi said the remark had been misreported.
“What I did in Port Harcourt is more of listening to the people. It wasn’t me talking. They were asking questions,” he said. “And one of them said, ‘We are prepared to die this time to defend our votes.’ And I said, to encourage them, that I’m prepared to die with them. It’s symbolic. What we are saying is that we are prepared to ensure that our votes count, and they must count.”
Dual Transmission
Pressed on how he would ensure it, Obi set out the mechanism.
“We must make sure that at every polling unit, the votes are counted, the votes are recorded properly, the votes are transmitted properly, and we will even have a dual transmission so that as it is going to the proper, designated INEC portal, it is also being transmitted where the people can see it,” he said.
Asked directly whether he was planning a parallel INEC, he said he was not.
“Not at all. All we are saying is that this time around, we will make sure that in every polling unit, we must have a system that transmits to our own situation room the correct results. And I’m sure there are many other agencies that intend to do the same,” he said.
“So we are not going to have a situation where somebody just pronounces something that didn’t emanate from the polling unit. Ours is to make sure that the right things are done.”
He added: “There’s nothing difficult in having a simple, free, transparent election. It happens in Ghana. It happens everywhere. So why would we always be involved in something that is negative?”
Obi said the election “is not about parties” but “the people versus the government,” and that Nigeria must get it right this time.
On INEC In 2023
Obi said the opposition had been too trusting in the last cycle.
“In 2023 we took things for granted. We believed INEC. We believed what they said they would do, because the chairman then was busy travelling all over the world telling the world that he and his team were prepared to do the right thing, when he was actually working for the opposite,” he said.
Asked for his proof, he offered none.
“Everybody knows. You don’t need to. Even he knows. I’m sure if you meet him, he knows in his heart that the wrong thing was done,” he said, adding that he has not met the former chairman and does not wish to. “That is past. Those who think about yesterday and today will miss tomorrow.”
He maintained that he won the 2023 election. “As long as I live, I will maintain that I won the 2023 presidential election, because those who conducted it know the records. They know why there was a glitch. They know what happened. But I have said I leave it to the past.”
Asked whether he would concede in 2027, he said: “If the election is free, fair and credible, I will. It’s the people that will say who they want to serve them, and I will respect the will of the people. That’s democracy.”
On Funding And Party Movement
Put to him that Dele Momodu and Akin Osuntokun had suggested former President Olusegun Obasanjo is funding the NDC to reduce Atiku Abubakar’s votes, Obi said he did not know who funds the party.
“I don’t know who is funding the NDC,” he said. Pressed on how a presidential candidate could not know, he replied: “To date, I can say the NDC accounting, to me, is transparent, and I’ve never seen any credit or any receipt from Obasanjo. But now that you’ve said it, I’ll look out for it.”
On accusations of party-hopping, he gave his account of leaving the Labour Party.
“I participated in the 2023 election in Labour Party. I left that party because the regulatory authority, INEC, told us in confidence that as long as I remain there, they will not recognise our side of the party, which they did a week after I left,” he said.
Told that his current party exists by court order, he said the pattern was deliberate. “All this is happening because the government wants to destabilise every opposition party,” he said, adding that the President and his party’s leadership take pleasure in crises within opposition parties.
On Atiku And A Possible Alliance
Obi repeatedly rejected the framing that he had refused to serve as anyone’s running mate.
“Who said so? Where? I said I will be on the ballot. There wasn’t even any party where that offer was on the table. So how do you say I refused to be vice?” he said.
Asked whether he would step down for Atiku Abubakar in a genuine coalition, he said the question was no longer his to answer alone.
“My leader, Atiku, is a candidate of another party. I’m a candidate of another party. So you’re talking about two parties coming together. It’s no longer me or him,” he said.
He compared it to a corporate merger. “It’s not something the two CEOs go for a drink and say, ‘We’re going to work together.’ They have to sit down and find a way. A CEO going to a meeting and saying, ‘Can you merge with me?’ has to go back and talk to his shareholders.”
He said the NDC has more than 80 senatorial candidates, about 25 governorship candidates and roughly 200 House of Representatives candidates. “So you just walk up and say ‘yes’? The institution is made up of people. That’s the irresponsibility we want to stop in this country. People must operate within a represented collegiate system.”
He added: “Whatever decision I’m going to take will be the result of the decision of all of us, not just Mr Peter Obi acting, which is what we have had in our leaders. If I serve this country, I will serve with a team.”
Pressed on what he would offer Atiku were he to step down, Obi refused the question. “This is not TV conversation. We’re not sharing bread. We’re not sharing Peter Obi and Sons business. We’re talking about a country.”
What he is offering, he said, is “a country where a child of nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody, a country where corruption will be dealt with decisively, where insecurity will be dealt with decisively, where we have unity, where there will be rule, law and order.”
On The North And 1966
Asked what he would say to a voter in Sokoto who still holds the killing of Sir Ahmadu Bello against the Igbo sixty years on, Obi said the past must be acknowledged but not carried forward.
“Yes, this happened, and there were other regrettable things that happened, but we must build a future based on love, not on hatred,” he said. “Those things were not done properly. I was not involved with it. It is time to show love. It is time to show unity.”
He said the country cannot hold against him events that occurred when he was three or four years old, and pointed to Rwanda as an example of recovery. “You don’t dwell on yesterday. Tomorrow is the only future we have.”
He also claimed that the President does not believe in one Nigeria. “Today we have a president who said he doesn’t believe in Nigeria, but he’s sitting down as a president. I believe in one Nigeria. I’m committed to it.”
On his prospects in the North, he said: “If there’s one president the North will celebrate, it’s me. I know the problems that are happening in the North. I will deal with the issue of poverty the way it has not been dealt with before, and in a non-corrupt way where they will see it.”
He pointed to agriculture and to the closure of factories in Kano. “Today, if you go to Kano, the factories in Bompai are gone. I will deal with the North in such a way that they will see it.”
He also disputed the link between fuel prices and northern poverty. “The poverty in the North was not worsened because of removal of subsidy. There are other things. That’s not what is causing insecurity.”
One Term
Obi confirmed his pledge to serve a single term and hand over to the North in 2031.
“I will not stay a day longer,” he said. “You don’t need 100 years to start a journey in the right direction. Nigeria is heading in the wrong direction today. I just need to reverse it and head it in the right direction.”
Told that the promise reads as desperation, he rejected it. “I’ve never been desperate in my life. In four years people will see the difference. In Anambra State in four years people saw the difference. Anambra, which used to exemplify bad things, became an example of what is good.”
Security
Asked who would command security in his government, Obi said the responsibility is the President’s personally.
“The president, and he will take it personal because it’s first priority,” he said, adding that insecurity is preventing farmers from farming and manufacturers from moving goods.
On his first week, he said: “It is for me to appoint competent heads in our security agencies with a decisive instruction. We must deal with this. Tell me what will stop us from achieving this. And I will commence immediately consultation with stakeholders in different areas of Nigeria.”
He said he would not direct operations from the capital. “I’m not going to sit in Abuja if there are problems in Zamfara. I’m going to visit Zamfara. I will not be in Abuja when there’s a problem in Niger. We will go there, because if we work with the locals, we can solve this.”
He said he supports state police, and that he would do whatever it takes to secure the country. Asked whether that includes paying ransom, he said no. “I didn’t say I’ll do whatever it takes to release, because if you secure, it won’t happen in the first place.”
He argued that technology makes mass abductions inexplicable. “In today’s world, through satellite, you can know where people are. The government knows where I am today. All those equipments they’re using to focus on opponents should be focused on criminals. I’m not going to follow any opponent. I don’t care where they are.”
He said he would act, whatever the cost. “I can tell you, I’ll take decisive action. There might be casualties. It doesn’t matter whether it’s me, but we will deal with it decisively. I’m not going to stay in Abuja when 600 people are kidnapped and in the bush, and that bush is in Nigeria.”
He recalled ordering an operation into a forest in Anambra as governor, saying he told security agencies that either the government was in charge or he would go home.
Asked what he believed had gone wrong with the mass abductions, he said: “They pack them in trucks, and you have satellite. You’re seeing them. You’re seeing everything. There’s something wrong.” Pressed on whether he was alleging complicity, he said: “I don’t know who, but there’s something wrong. Not in today’s world.”
Subsidy
Obi restated his support for removing the subsidy while attacking the handling of the savings.
“The subsidy regime in Nigeria was enmeshed with corruption and criminality,” he said. “It is only when you remove it that you will know exactly whether we have subsidy or not. I believe that if you remove it, there might not be subsidy.”
He cited Pakistan as a comparison, saying a country of similar population with more paved roads and more vehicles consumed a third of Nigeria’s fuel volume before it removed its own subsidy.
He said prices can still be brought down. “If we can do regular supply of crude to our local refineries, working with them competitively to refine for domestic consumption, the prices can come down.”
Subsidy, he argued, should be redirected to agriculture and to production. He noted that manufacturing contributes about 7.5 per cent of GDP against at least 17.5 per cent in comparable countries, and cited Indonesia, where he said the general interest rate is about 15 per cent but lending to small businesses is between three and six per cent. “That’s subsidy. You’re giving it where it is productive, not where it’s not productive.”
On the ₦16 trillion figure he has used, he said it came from the government. “It’s actually the government who said that the subsidy they removed produced 15.8 trillion. Can you look around and show the effect of this?”
Told that governors say they are receiving more money from subsidy savings, he said: “When you do such a drastic thing, that the people are suffering, that money should have been invested properly.”
He offered cancer treatment as an illustration. “To do a cancer centre will cost you about 4 to 5 billion naira. We have less than 10 cancer centres, and to add just 25 you need to spend about 100 billion. That’s what our president used to buy a plane. Just his plane. And we saved 16 trillion.”
On Atiku’s pledge to restore the subsidy, Obi said the difference between them is corruption. “The country is a mess in corruption. Our problem today is corruption, period. If you deal with corruption, all these things we are saying are not the same.”
On The President
Asked how the administration has fared, Obi said it had not done well.
“They’ve been a bit reckless in what they’re doing. At times, I don’t believe he’s now in charge,” he said. Asked to explain, he added: “If he’s in charge, he would even be explaining to the people. That’s what I’m talking about, capacity. I will be in charge. All these things the press is talking about, nobody will talk for Peter. Because I’m the one that is elected. I’ll be answerable to the people, and for every penny.”
No New Buildings
Obi said his administration would not commission new projects while existing ones are unfixed.
“You’re not going to see building of new guest houses, building of anything. In fact, no new building,” he said. Pressed on roads, he said: “We’ll fix the existing ones before the new ones. But we’re not going to start building new extensions for the president or for the wife of anybody.”
He also said a Nigerian president should not take holidays abroad. “A Nigerian president must spend his vacation in Nigeria. We cannot continue with this nonsense. He should go on vacation in Zamfara, in Borno, in Anambra or anywhere. That’s the country he lives in.”
He criticised the President’s visits to scenes of killings. “He went to Jos, stayed at the airport to see people who’ve lost their loved ones, brought to him. He even told them he’s sorry because there’s no light, which he was supposed to provide. He went to Benue, did the same thing. Said there was no road.”
What should have happened, he said, is different. “He should go to Benue and say, ‘I’m here for the next three days. I want to see the stakeholders in this state. Let’s discuss these killings.’” He added that as a Muslim president he would have expected him to mark Salah in Sokoto with the Sultan rather than in Lagos.
Certificates And Qualification
Obi returned repeatedly to the question of credentials.
“We cannot have a situation where you fill a document and you didn’t fill primary or secondary school. What did you show them to give you a university admission?” he said. “These are things you can even look at and say, ‘Well, listen, I made a mistake. Let me not continue with this.’”
He recounted asking an electoral official in Indonesia what qualification is required to be president, and being told that a candidate without it would be disqualified and jailed.
Asked what the Nigerian Constitution provides, he objected to the direction. “Please, don’t go there, because our constitution does not allow that. The electoral body have been manipulated by the National Assembly by saying that qualification can no longer lead to disqualification.”
Told the presidency maintains the certificate issue was settled in court, he replied: “That’s nonsensical. You’re a leader. We’re talking about issues of morality, issues of exemplariness, issues that go beyond court decisions.”
On his own record, he said: “In terms of training today, I have been to the best schools all over the world, from Oxford to Cambridge, to Harvard, to Columbia, to Kellogg, to IMD. And every certificate I’ve shown you is the way it is. If you find anywhere wrong, I withdraw from the race.”
He also raised a generational point. “Can you believe that since 1960, nobody born after 1960 has been president of Nigeria? This is 66 years of independence. No other country in the world has this happen to it. And they’re telling young people they’ll be leaders of tomorrow.”
One Tinubu Policy He Would Keep
Asked to name a policy of the current administration he would retain, Obi named one.
“It’s the floated naira. I’m not going to defend it, but I’m going to put productivity to make it more valuable to the people.”
On The Bayelsa Convoy
Referring to his convoy being blocked in Bayelsa State days earlier as he tried to visit victims of attacks, Obi said the greater harm fell on the victims.
“Unfortunately, the victims and those suffering are those being used to stop me. Not those who are stopping me, but those who allow themselves to be used to stop me,” he said. “These are one of the things I want to build in a new Nigeria, so that nobody can use them as tools. It did not happen when I was governor, and it will never be allowed to happen.”
Governing By Presence
Obi closed on his approach to office, citing his record in Anambra.
“I visited 180 communities in Anambra State. There’s no community I did not physically visit as governor. I might not do it all over Nigeria, but I can tell you I will visit every state at least once a year,” he said.
“I visited every secondary school, 500 and something secondary schools, inspected their dormitories, inspected their kitchens, their toilets, everything, personally, and that changed. It’s not government by proxy. It is by capacity and feeling it physically, and I’ll be there.”
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