Key Points
- Yesufu says Obi made the one-term pledge before the 2023 election and reaffirmed it to her in a private conversation afterward.
- She sat down with Obi after the 2023 race and got his direct word that he would serve only one term if elected president.
- Despite her warning, Yesufu expressed confidence that Obi is a man of his word and would honor the commitment.
Aisha Yesufu has a reputation for meaning what she says. On Monday, she pointed that reputation squarely at Peter Obi.
The activist and co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls movement told Arise Television that she would oppose the former Anambra State governor with full force if he wins the presidency in 2027 and then decides to stay beyond a single term.
“If Mr. Peter Obi gets into office and decides to do more than one term, I, Aisha Yesufu, said it here, I will oppose him with everything in me,” she said. “He gave his word, and if he has given his word, he has to stick to his word.”
A promise that predates 2023
Yesufu was careful to frame this not as a recent political position but as a commitment Obi made long before his Labour Party presidential run two years ago.
“He didn’t start saying it after the 2023 election,” she said. “He was saying it before the 2023 election.”
She said she had initially been skeptical, uncertain whether the pledge would hold if Obi ever made it to the presidency. After the 2023 vote, she went looking for clarity.
A private conversation, a public accountability moment
Yesufu said she sat down with Obi directly after the election and asked him point-blank to reaffirm the promise. His response, she said, left little room for ambiguity.
“He said, Aisha, I told you even in 2023, and I still mean it,” she recalled. “I’m putting my name on it. I don’t joke with my name. I don’t joke with my integrity. When I say something, I mean it.”
That conversation is now the basis of her public accountability pledge. By sharing it on national television, Yesufu is essentially putting Obi on notice before he is even on a ballot.
She believes him, but she is watching
There is nuance in Yesufu’s position. She is not predicting betrayal. She closed out her remarks by describing Obi as someone who keeps his commitments, and said she expects him to follow through.
What she is doing, in effect, is making that expectation official. The warning is less a prediction than a preemptive contract, one she has now signed publicly.
Nigeria’s 2027 presidential race is still taking shape, with Obi navigating a complicated path through the African Democratic Congress coalition following his departure from the Labour Party on Dec. 31, 2025.
But Yesufu’s intervention signals that even his supporters are watching closely, and that the one-term pledge will follow him to every campaign stop between now and election day.
