Obi’s one-term proposal resonates with northern Nigeria, says ex-IPAC chair

Peter Ameh, former national chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), says northern Nigerians support Peter Obi’s presidential ambition and his pledge to serve a single term if elected in 2027.

Speaking on Thursday during an appearance on ‘Politics Today’, a Channels Television programme, Ameh said the political pulse of the region indicates that Obi has been accepted by the people.

Ameh, a supporter of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 polls, said Obi has the capacity to transform the country within four years.

He said the former Anambra governor would not be learning the ropes in office and is free from a sense of entitlement, adding that Obi’s character and competence have made him popular in the north.

“The north is a very diverse place and a very complex political territory,” he said.

“For me, I don’t think the north is as difficult as people want to make us believe.

“The northern Nigeria that you see today — Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto and all that — Obi’s performance there was very clear. Even in Plateau, you saw what he did there.

“We want a free election, that is fair and that is credible. I see the north listening to Obi.

“There is no party today that is discussing which candidate should run that Peter Obi is not topping the list… even with surveys.

“The clear point today, and everybody knows, is that when it comes to public discussion, Peter Obi has taken over and he is in charge of the dynamic leading to the 2027 election.

“It pains me today that we talk about north and south. In the last election, 44 percent was what Peter Obi got in the south and 15.2 percent in the north.

“If you show Kwankwaso’s result today, he got around one million in the entire country; it’s not about the fact that somebody is from the south-east or north-east.”

He said Obi has committed to running for a single term to preserve the spirit of Nigeria’s informal power-sharing arrangement.

“Peter Obi has made an emphatic statement and a public declaration that ‘I want to do only one term so that I don’t tilt the balance of our unwritten arrangement’,” Ameh added.

“We should be looking at compassion and character and be disciplined alone to manage our public resources because you can’t have a situation where our public resources are misaligned, misallocated and they are not directed to priority areas that would have helped the masses to grow.”

Ameh said President Bola Tinubu is losing support across the country and in the north.

He also claimed that meetings are being held with northern lawmakers as the presidency tries to win back public confidence.

“It is clear that the next election is not going to be the same thing,” he said.

“Even the chief of staff is holding meetings with the northern house of representatives because they know the people are not happy.”

He added that Obi’s supporters will resist attempts to undermine the 2027 election.

Obi has consistently maintained that he will serve only one term, insisting he can transform the country in four years.