2023 Poll: Stop dreaming of victory you never won – Onanuga tells Obi

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has criticized the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, for maintaining that he was rigged out of the 2023 election, urging him to stop claiming a victory he did not achieve.

He was reacting to Obi’s latest interview on Channels television where he claimed to have won the 2023 presidential election but was rigged out.

Onanuga labeled the recent interview a “PR disaster” designed to revive 2027 ambitions rather than present viable political alternatives.

The presidential spokesman maintained that the former Anambra State governor did not win the poll, noting that the election outcome was upheld through the judicial process, including by the Supreme Court.

He criticised Obi for continuing to insist that he was denied victory, despite the court rulings.

Reacting to Obi’s remarks on his movement across political parties, Onanuga rejected the comparison Obi made between his political career and that of President Bola Tinubu.

According to Onanuga, Tinubu has remained within the progressive political fold throughout his political career, beginning with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), before moving through the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and later the All Progressives Congress (APC), which emerged from the merger of opposition parties in 2013.

He contrasted this with Obi’s political trajectory, noting that Obi was elected governor under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), later joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), contested the 2019 presidential election as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate, moved to the Labour Party ahead of the 2023 election and has since aligned with the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Onanuga also alleged that the Labour Party experienced a leadership crisis after the 2023 election and claimed that campaign funds in Obi’s possession had not been fully accounted for.

He further accused Obi of leaving political parties instead of remaining to resolve internal challenges and strengthen their structures.

In his words: “Two issues caught my attention while I watched him. First, when his interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye, questioned him about his political nomadism, he tried to make the question a non-issue, saying, with a smirk on his face, that he has not done anything different from what President Bola Tinubu has done in his political odyssey.

“No, Mr Obi. 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.

“The second issue is that Seun gave you a golden opportunity to redeem yourself in respect of the outcome of the 2023 election. You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election.

“You did well in the election, no doubt- a politician with no structure in the states, except the noisy followers on X, Instagram and Facebook.

“But I was utterly surprised that more than three years after the Supreme Court threw away your petition, you are still in denial of the loss, and you still nurse the delusion that you won the election, echoing the sentiment of your gullible followers on the streets.

“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had.”