09/09/2026
BREAKING: Peter Obi is more like a content creator than a contender — Okonkwo sparks fresh 2027 controversy
Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Council, has strongly reacted to Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed’s claim that neither Atiku Abubakar nor Peter Obi has the capacity to improve Nigeria, arguing that Datti’s conclusions were wrong and that Atiku’s political record speaks for itself.
Speaking during an interview with Arise News, Okonkwo, who previously worked with Datti Baba-Ahmed and Peter Obi in the Labour Party, said he has great respect for Datti and acknowledged that some of his assertions were very smart.
However, he said Datti eventually reached a conclusion that confused both himself and Okonkwo.
Okonkwo said Datti had repeatedly argued that Tinubu’s emergence was a sign of constitutional crisis and had also stated that Tinubu was not fit to be president, his vice was not fit to be president, and none of the contenders was fit to be president.
According to Okonkwo, if the incumbent and his vice are not fit, and none of the contenders is fit, then such a position amounts to advocating a constitutional crisis because, in a democracy, power must be transferred peacefully to whoever wins an election.
The interviewer, however, challenged Okonkwo’s interpretation, pointing out that Datti was specifically referring to Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar as people who could not improve Nigeria, and was not saying that every other contender was incapable.
Okonkwo then shifted his focus to Datti’s comments about Peter Obi.
He said Datti mentioned Peter Obi by name and argued that Datti could have used the opportunity to mention and endorse his own preferred candidate, including Donald Duke, whom the interviewer referenced.
Okonkwo said it was instructive that Datti did not do so, but instead focused his criticism on Peter Obi and Atiku.
When the interviewer insisted that this did not exonerate Atiku and Obi from Datti’s claim that they could not improve Nigeria, Okonkwo said he was coming to that point but first wanted to explain why he believed Datti reached his conclusion.
According to Okonkwo, he understood why Datti made his comment about Peter Obi because they were together in the Labour Party trenches in 2023.
He said Datti may be suffering from what he described as a post-political identity crisis after working with Peter Obi.
Okonkwo said those who joined the Labour Party movement in 2023 came in with high hopes because they believed a new Nigeria was being born.
He said, for the first time in his life, he saw people joining a political association because of what they could give rather than what they could take or receive.
According to him, people were ready to provide resources and do whatever was necessary, but they were asking for only one thing: leadership.
Okonkwo, however, said that when the Labour Party ended the way it did, people came out with political trauma because, in his view, the experience exposed what he called incompetence and incapacity on the part of the political leader, Peter Obi, to manage the affairs of the movement.
He said everything was provided for Obi, with people willing to provide resources, but leadership was what they expected from him and, according to Okonkwo, he could not provide it.
Okonkwo further referred to Datti’s own statement that after what happened in the Labour Party, he could no longer do anything for Peter Obi.
He interpreted that statement to mean that Datti had lost confidence in Peter Obi following what happened in the Labour Party.
The interviewer then reminded Okonkwo that he could not hold brief for Peter Obi and suggested that he should instead concentrate on his own candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Okonkwo responded that he was analysing Datti Baba-Ahmed’s interview and was therefore addressing the statements Datti made about both Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar.
He then turned directly to Atiku’s record.
The interviewer described Tinubu, Atiku and Obi as the three major contenders for the 2027 presidential election, while also suggesting that Peter Obi is more like a content creator than a contender.
Okonkwo nevertheless accepted the comparison and argued that if the three men were judged based on their political history and previous endorsements, Atiku would have a 2–0 advantage.
He explained that in 2007, after Atiku had completed his tenure as vice president, Bola Tinubu endorsed Atiku to become president of Nigeria.
He added that in 2019, Atiku Abubakar was endorsed by Peter Obi to become president.
Okonkwo then pointed out that Tinubu has never endorsed Obi to be president, Atiku has never endorsed Obi to be president, Atiku has never endorsed Tinubu to be president, while Obi endorsed Atiku in 2019.
He described the record as 2–0 in Atiku’s favour.
The interviewer challenged the relevance of the 2007 endorsement, arguing that it was history and asking what had changed by 2026 and what Atiku’s relevance would be going into the 2027 election.
Okonkwo responded that a man should be judged by his antecedents.
He said the period between 1999 and 2007 was the period in which Nigerians saw Atiku Abubakar perform in the public space.
According to Okonkwo, Atiku had concluded his tenure as vice president and was the head of the economic team during that period.
He said Atiku co-opted some of the best people in the whole world into government.
Okonkwo specifically mentioned Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, saying that was when she came on board, and also mentioned Nasir El-Rufai, whom he said was brought in to sanitise the Federal Capital Territory.
When asked whether this meant Atiku had now lost his political relevance, Okonkwo rejected the suggestion.
He said Atiku has not lost his relevance but is now more relevant.
Okonkwo argued that a man who helped ensure the security of the nation and contributed to the economy when Nigeria needed it most should be judged based on that record.
He further claimed that Atiku paid off all Nigeria’s foreign debts while the country was still paying subsidy.
Okonkwo said Nigerians have never again had what he described as the best period they experienced between 1999 and 2007.
He recalled that Nigeria was a pariah state in 1999, claiming that countries including the United Kingdom and United States did not even want Nigeria to visit them.
According to him, by 2007, Nigeria had become the darling of the whole world.
Okonkwo therefore maintained that Atiku’s antecedents remain relevant in assessing his capacity to lead Nigeria, as the country heads toward the 2027 presidential election.
