Rather than committing to the Ibadan Declaration, Peter Obi is privately recalculating his 2027 options, keeping communication lines open with Kwankwaso while awaiting a crucial Supreme Court ruling on ADC leadership.
Peter Obi showed up in Ibadan. He smiled for cameras, played tennis, and said nothing publicly about the declaration that followed. That silence is now speaking volumes.
Insiders told TheCable that Obi left the opposition summit dissatisfied — and has since been quietly recalibrating his political strategy. The core problem remains unresolved: the Ibadan Declaration committed to a single presidential candidate without addressing zoning, the very issue Obi considers non-negotiable.
Rather than waiting on a coalition he doesn’t fully trust, Obi is already exploring his alternatives.
Two moves stand out. First, he is closely watching the Supreme Court judgement on the ADC leadership dispute, which could significantly reshape the opposition landscape. Second, he is maintaining active communication with Rabiu Kwankwaso — a relationship that could prove pivotal depending on how alliances shift.
As one source put it: “If they had gone further to say that the opposition would respect zoning, it would have been a different outcome. They only made a political statement for one candidate. The summit is as good as not achieving anything.”
For Obi, Ibadan was not an endpoint. It was a checkpoint — and he is already looking ahead.