The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has dismissed reports claiming he is in talks with former President Goodluck Jonathan to form a political alliance ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Obi’s media aide and National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, made the clarification in an interview with News Men Today.
According to Tanko, while Obi and Jonathan share mutual respect and often discuss national issues, there is no political agreement or arrangement between the two leaders targeted at unseating President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
“My principal and the former president have a very good working relationship and they know each other well,” Tanko said. “So, seeing them talk does not mean anything beyond a cordial discussion on how to move this country forward. I don’t think there’s anything more than that. No discussion or pact around 2027. Even when they met in Ghana, I was there. There was nothing like that.”
The clarification comes amid widespread speculation following Obi’s September meeting with Jonathan in Abuja. At the time, Obi had shared on social media that he had a “fruitful closed-door meeting” with the former president, where they discussed the state of the nation.
In recent weeks, there have been growing calls for Jonathan to contest the presidency again, a decade after he lost his re-election bid in 2015. Various political groups and allies within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have reportedly been urging him to return, arguing that his leadership is needed to address Nigeria’s worsening poverty and economic hardship.
A PDP chieftain had also told the press in August that consultations were at an advanced stage and that Jonathan had allegedly agreed in principle to contest in 2027, a claim yet to be confirmed by the former president himself.
