Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has advised former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to accept the reality of his loss in the 2023 presidential election and stop claiming a victory he never achieved.
Onanuga’s remarks followed Obi’s recent interview on Channels Television, during which the former Anambra State governor reiterated claims that he was rigged out of the election.
In a statement, Onanuga said two issues from the interview particularly caught his attention. The first was Obi’s attempt to justify his frequent movement across political parties by comparing himself to President Bola Tinubu. The presidential spokesman rejected the comparison, stating that Tinubu has remained consistent on the progressive path since joining politics in the early 1990s, unlike Obi, whom he described as a political nomad who moved from APGA to PDP, Labour Party, and subsequently to other platforms.
On the outcome of the 2023 election, Onanuga was categorical: “You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election. You came third, and if not for the bloc vote from your ethnic group, you would have ended up a miserable third.
“Seun pointedly asked you whether you believed you were rigged out. You fell into his trap by concurring. You did well in the election, no doubt a politician with no structure in the states, except the noisy followers on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
“But I was utterly surprised that, more than three years after the Supreme Court threw away your petition, you are still in denial of the loss, and you still nurse the delusion that you won the election, echoing the sentiment of your gullible followers on the streets.
“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had.”
Onanuga further noted that Obi performed creditably given his limited political structure at the time, but insisted that the final results and subsequent judicial validation left no room for continued claims of victory.
He urged the former presidential candidate to move on from the 2023 contest and focus on more productive engagement rather than sustaining a narrative rejected by both the Independent National Electoral Commission and the courts.