Public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, has said that former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is likely to leave the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for another political party ahead of the 2027 general election if he fails to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate, a view he expressed during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, where he argued that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar could outspend Obi, especially if the party adopts indirect primaries, noting that “Rumour mill has it that Atiku has been a very good benevolent spender when it comes to party primaries,” and adding, “Assuming, without conceding that in a free and fair primaries in ADC Atiku emerges, I can see Peter Obi likely going to leave the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for another party,” while he further claimed that Atiku wants to be in the frontline in determining who emerges as the ADC candidate, which fuels fears that he may financially outmatch Obi, particularly under an indirect primary system, even as Ojo acknowledged that Obi’s defection to the ADC has injected excitement into the opposition coalition, recalling that during Obi’s defection from the Labour Party to the ADC on December 31, 2025, several lawmakers from the Southeast, including about four senators, 16 House of Representatives members and numerous state assembly members, announced their defection with him, a contrast to Atiku’s earlier defection in November when no serving lawmaker or governor followed, while stressing that Obi has made it clear he intends to be on the ballot in 2027, saying, “If somebody says, ‘I will be on the ballot,’ it is only the prime candidate, the candidate of the party that will be given the certificate of return, even though it is the party logo that appears on the ballot,” and concluding that, “What Peter Obi means is that he is not going to play second fiddle.”
