Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party has formally defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), throwing bombs as he galvanised political leaders of the Southeast to join the party as platform to contest the 2027 general election.
Speaking at the event that sealed his defection, Obi launched a blistering critique of Nigeria’s ruling elite, warning that the country was sliding dangerously toward collapse and could no longer survive politics as usual.
He described Nigeria as a nation in distress, insisting that unity and honesty in leadership were now matters of survival, not choice.
“We cannot have a country where people who cannot tell the school they attended are meant to rule us, and the court will say it is a pre-election matter,” Obi said, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fully scrutinise candidates’ qualifications ahead of future elections.
Nigeria is not a poor country. We were looted into poverty,” Obi noted, adding that criminality had been normalised in governance.
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According to him, we have now become a crime scene. We are called a disgraced nation.
The former Anambra State governor also questioned economic policies that, in his view, punish the poor.
“How can you tax people who are not productive? You cannot grow revenue when people are poor,” he argued, recounting visits to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps that, he said, many in government are afraid to acknowledge.
Among those present at the event were the national chairman of the ADC, David Mark; former Imo State governor Achike Udenwa; former Enugu State governor Okwesilieze Nwodo; Chief Onyema Ugochukwu; Senators Ben Obi, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Tony Nwoye and Victor Umeh, alongside several Southeast leaders.
Obi concluded with a stark warning that Nigerians could no longer afford indifference.
“We cannot sit, wait and leave ourselves to die,” he said.
While urging citizens and political stakeholders to rally around a united front to rescue the country from further decline.
At the event the southeast leaders adopted a motion by Emeka Ihedioha that the Southeast leaders should join the ADC as a platform for the region to be reconnected to the centre.
