FEATURES
2027: Southeast Tinubu Group Meet to Beg Peter Obi to Drop Presidential Bid
The Southeast chapter of the Renewed Hope for Greater Nigeria (RHGN) has resolved to engage prominent Igbo leaders in a bid to persuade former Anambra State Governor and Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race and support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
The group’s Southeast leader, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, disclosed this in Owerri on Saturday following a meeting focused on strategies to secure victory for Tinubu across the five Southeast states in the 2027 election.
Ngoforo said the organisation plans to approach the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Senator John Azuta Mbata, as well as elder statesmen including Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.
According to him, the leaders would be encouraged to lead a delegation to Obi and appeal to him to reconsider his presidential ambition in the interest of the long-term political aspirations of the Southeast.
He stressed that the proposed intervention was not aimed at undermining Obi or questioning his political influence, but rather at encouraging him to place what he described as the broader strategic interests of Ndigbo above the immediate pursuit of the presidency.
Ngoforo argued that Obi should consider whether a strategic political alliance with the Southwest could provide the Southeast with a stronger opportunity to secure the presidency in the future.
He noted that President Tinubu, if re-elected, would be constitutionally limited to one additional term, urging the Southeast to consider supporting the Southwest in 2027 while negotiating a political arrangement that could benefit the region when presidential power returns to the South.
Rather than seeing the 2027 election purely as a battle to be won or lost, Ngoforo said the Southeast should use the contest to build political goodwill, strengthen alliances and establish reciprocal commitments with other regions.
He appealed to Obi to consider that stepping down from the 2027 race would not necessarily mean abandoning his presidential ambition, but could instead amount to postponing it until a more favourable political moment.
“The issue is bigger than one election and bigger than one individual,” Ngoforo said.
Vanguard reports that he added that the critical political question for Ndigbo should be how to convert present-day alliances into strategic partnerships capable of positioning the Southeast for the presidency in the future.