A lawyer and current affairs analyst, Dr. Maxwell Opara, has dismissed the challenge by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, that the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, should honour his pledge to quit the 2027 race if claims that his administration left debts and other financial liabilities are proved.
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The challenge followed the publication by the Anambra State Government on Wednesday of what it described as a detailed breakdown of loans allegedly contracted during Mr. Obi’s tenure, covering malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare. It came shortly after the candidate’s academic qualifications were brought into question in a suit seeking to compel the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to release the certificates he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Dr. Opara, who disclosed during the interview that he is himself contesting for a seat in the House of Representatives on the party’s platform, spoke on the programme News Day.
Responding to the presidential spokesman, the analyst characterised the challenge as an exercise in political positioning rather than a serious demand.
“I don’t know why this should be an issue,” he said. “At least he can now go and collect his medal from the President, that he has done a particular job.”
He continued: “Please help me tell him that Peter Obi is going to contest this election. Nigerians are going to speak again. They spoke in 2023 and it was ripped, and Peter Obi was not declared winner. This time around Nigerians are going to speak again, and Peter Obi is going to be the President of Nigeria.”
On the substance of the Anambra State Government’s claim, Dr. Opara argued that the sequence of succession makes the present administration the wrong party to raise it.
“Peter Obi never handed over to you. Peter Obi handed over to a governor, and the governor ruled for eight years and handed over to you,” he said.
He pointed to the account given at the earlier transition: “And when the governor was leaving, the governor said Peter Obi left this money in this particular bank. The person who was the managing director of the bank, who is now the Governor of Abia State, said Peter Obi left all this money.”
He was dismissive of the documents now being relied upon, and said his advice to the candidate has been to stop engaging with the matter altogether.
“Personally, I have advised him, if he cares to hear, that he should stop responding. Because what they want to do is divert attention. They want to divert attention so that Peter Obi will not go ahead to tell people.”
“If you watch Peter Obi’s campaign, he goes to issues. He never attacks anybody. He never attacks even the President. He goes to issues, tells you the problem of Nigeria and tells you how all those problems can be solved. That’s what he is doing now. They know that Nigerians are buying Peter Obi, they are supporting Peter Obi, and in the diaspora he is getting overwhelming support. So they decided to come up with all this.”
Turning to the litigation over the candidate’s academic records, the analyst said the university has already answered the question.
“There is one other person who said he had no certificate from the University of Nigeria. Now the University of Nigeria has come to say, no, this guy graduated from our school,” he said.
He said the candidate has gone further than any demand made of him: “Anybody who is a president, who wants to rule, if you want them to address you as his excellency, you should be excellent. Peter Obi has directed all the schools he attended, both here and outside, that they should make his documents and credentials available.”
He then turned the demand on the presidency: “So can’t Mr President come and address the press for once? Peter Obi has been going through media houses talking to people. What happened to our President?”
Put to him that the movement behind the candidate appears diminished compared with the period leading into the last election, and that some speak of a fatigue among his supporters, Dr. Opara rejected the suggestion and offered three reasons.
“If Peter Obi had those votes before, I’m assuring you the votes are going to be far higher this time around. One, the level of poverty in 2022 and 2023 is not the level of poverty now. Nigerians have received it so hard.”
“Secondly, when he ran in 2023, he ran with a vice presidential candidate who was unable to deliver. But now he is running with an institution like himself.”
“And when he was running before, people felt that he would not get that support. They took him for granted. Now some people have discovered that yes, had it been that we gave this guy the necessary support, what happened in 2023 would not have happened.”
He cited the party’s growth after the candidate’s move: “Go and check. Remember when he left ADC to NDC. Within 48 hours, how many millions did the party record? The point I’m making is that Peter Obi is an institution.”
He also reported what he says he is encountering on his own campaign: “As I’m talking to you, I am running an election and I’m telling you what people are saying. I have received a lot of support from people supporting the campaign. The support is increasing every day.”
The analyst said the campaign’s central preoccupation this time is the protection of votes rather than post-election litigation, and that the technical failure of 2023 will not be permitted to recur.
“What they are asking is, how do we protect our vote? And we are telling them that we are going to protect our vote, because we are not going to court.”
“That technical glitch that happened, we allowed it because then we were blind. But now I’m telling you, we can see, and it will not happen again. We are working ahead of them technologically and physically. We are making sure that all our votes will be counted.”
On the suggestion that the outcome in the Federal Capital Territory offers a measure of the movement’s strength, he was dismissive, saying the territory’s peculiar circumstances make it an unreliable yardstick.
Asked whether the present dispute is a fresh controversy or the resurfacing of the rivalry between the candidate and the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, dating to the 2022 disagreement over the value of Mr. Obi’s investments, the analyst said the comparison between the two men has no basis.
He said the governor’s engagement with the candidate is politically motivated and aimed at advancing his own standing, and observed that the same treatment was not extended to the administration that immediately succeeded Mr. Obi.
“He never even mentioned Obiano. He took out Peter Obi, because he believes that the more he attacks him, they will love him the more,” he said, arguing that the effect is to reduce the ruling party’s support in the South East rather than to enhance it.
“So he should go and rest. Let him concentrate on governing Anambra State and leave Peter Obi alone.”
In the course of that answer, the analyst made a number of further assertions about the governor, both personal and concerning his stewardship of the state. The presenter interrupted to caution him that the claims could not be substantiated, that he could not cast aspersions on persons unable to defend themselves without concrete evidence, and that hard proof was required.
Dr. Opara withdrew the remarks. “Okay, I withdraw. I withdraw it,” he said.
On the criticism advanced by some who contested on the Labour Party platform in 2023, that the candidate concentrated on politicking at the top rather than building structures at the grassroots, and that he lost votes because he had too few people to protect them, the analyst offered a direct rebuttal.
“Can I explain to you? I’m running for an election, and I’m running under the platform of NDC where Peter Obi is the presidential candidate. Now, what are those characters? Watch those characters. They came because they heard that Peter Obi is a rich man. They came to collect money, and that is where they said that he does not give shishi.”
He rejected the claim that money was the problem: “Nobody in Nigeria spends more money than Peter Obi. I can tell you for free. Go to schools of nursing. Go to motherless babies’ homes. Go to IDP camps.”
“When it comes to grassroots, as I’m talking to you now I am running an election, and I’m telling you what people are saying. People are not interested in his money. They are spending their money. They are spending their time.”
He did, however, concede a failure in the handling of polling agents in the last cycle.
“They say party agents were not paid till after the election. These are facts. These are facts and realities I’m putting out to you,” he said.
He alleged that some agents were induced to abandon their posts: “Those of them that believed in the struggle for good governance refused to collect money, and those who are greedy, who don’t have character, who don’t even have conscience, collected money and compromised. And when you ask them, they said there was no agent. There was an agent.”
He then made the clearest concession of the interview: “I’m telling you that there are some mistakes we, Labour Party, made in 2023. We have corrected them this time around.”
He described the structure now being built: “As I’m talking to you now, I just came out from a place where I went to inaugurate a 15-man polling agent team in every polling unit in my local government, in my constituency.”
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