KEY POINTS

• Daniel Bwala says Peter Obi will not secure ADC presidential or VP ticket

• Bwala claims Obi has lost political structure and legislative influence

• He predicts Obi will contest future elections on another platform

Daniel Bwala, who is President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser on policy communication, says that Peter Obi will not be the African Democratic Congress‘s candidate for president or vice president.

Bwala said this during an interview on The Clarity Zone Podcast. He said that the former governor of Anambra does not have the political skills to lead or organise a successful coalition movement.

The presidential aide said that Obi no longer controls the political structure that helped him win the 2023 general election. They also said that the influence has mostly faded across party and legislative lines.

Claims of weakened political structure

Bwala said that after the last election, Obi lost the loyalty of many of his allies, including lawmakers who used to support his movement. He asked why Obi was still in the national assembly, saying that his support base had shrunk a lot.

He also said that Obi no longer has the support of sitting governors, saying that those who used to support him have since moved on to other political interests.

Bwala also said that candidates who Obi publicly backed in recent elections lost, which he said showed that Obi’s appeal at the grassroots level was fading.

Accusations of party inconsistency

The president’s aide said that Obi was being hypocritical about party loyalty because he had a long history of switching political parties.

He talked about Obi’s political journey from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, then back to the PDP, and then to the Labour Party. He said that this kind of movement makes it harder to claim ideological consistency.

Bwala said that Obi is currently stuck between the ADC and the Labour Party, but he is sure that he will run for office again in the future on a different platform.