Presidency Blasts Obi Over Call for Tinubu’s Resignation
By: Abudu Olalekan
The Presidency hit back at Peter Obi for asking Tinubu to resign, calling it childish and an unworthy distraction. Here’s what really went down.
Peter Obi asked President Bola Tinubu to step down. And the Presidency? They weren’t having any of it.
On Monday, they brushed off the call from the Nigerian Democratic Congress flagbearer, branding it “childish, hollow and an unworthy distraction.” Strong words. But they didn’t stop there.
They went on to pull out the receipts — economic numbers from Tinubu’s three years in office — and argued the figures tell a very different story from the one Obi keeps pushing. They also threw in a jab at Obi’s own time as Anambra State governor for good measure.
The statement came from Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy. According to him, Obi’s comments were just a sneaky attempt to take the shine off the APC’s wins in the recent Ekiti governorship race and the senatorial by-elections.
Onanuga didn’t mince words about Obi comparing Tinubu to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who’d resigned only hours before. He said the comparison just showed the former Anambra governor doesn’t really get how Nigeria’s constitution works.
And that claim that Nigeria is in its “worst possible condition”? Onanuga said the data doesn’t back it up. Not even close.
Here’s part of what the statement said:
“Peter Obi’s latest comments calling for President Bola Tinubu’s resignation, based on a comparison with the British Prime Minister’s voluntary exit, are not only misplaced but also reflect a selective and distorted view of Nigeria’s realities since 2023.
“His view is also simplistic, as is often the case anytime he opens his mouth. Obi forgets our country does not run a parliamentary system of government like the UK.
“We run a presidential system, with the president elected to a fixed four-year term.
“The people of Ekiti State and the senatorial constituents in Nasarawa, Enugu, Ondo and Rivers have just delivered a resounding victory for President Tinubu and his party. The election results, some early referendum of sorts, show that President Tinubu and his party are popular with Nigerians.”
Then came the warning. The Presidency basically told Obi those election results should scare him more than they scare Tinubu.
“This should be more concerning for Peter Obi and his new Special Purpose Vehicle, NDC, as we move towards the January 2027 election.
“Obi should wait until the presidential election to know what the people think of Tinubu’s government.
“Moving to use X to harangue the President out of office is off the mark and anti-democratic,” the Presidency said.
On security matters, they accused Obi of conveniently looking the other way. They listed off a string of operational wins they said he simply chose to ignore.
Now, the money talk.
“Federation revenue is projected to hit over N30tn this year, far above the 2022 level of N7.7tn.
“By May this year, N15.7tn has already been collected, more than twice the entire revenue collected in 2022,” the statement read.
They also pointed to the stock market doing rather well lately. “The stock market has soared, with the All-Share Index rising from 50,000 to over 250,000, creating wealth for about six million Nigerian investors.
“The naira-to-dollar exchange rate has been stable. Foreign direct and portfolio investments are at record highs, reflecting renewed investor confidence, especially in the oil and gas sector.”
Then there’s something they say nobody’s giving Tinubu credit for — no disruption to the academic calendar in three whole years.
“Are conditions worsening in our country when, in three years of Tinubu’s leadership, we have recorded no disruption of the academic calendar by trade unions such as ASUU or NASU?
“That is one of President Tinubu’s campaign promises to our students: a four-year programme will be a four-year programme.
“It has been a promise well kept, which Obi, in his penchant for bad news, has never sung about and will never acknowledge.”
The Presidency also pushed back hard against what it called Obi twisting Tinubu’s old electricity promise. They insist Tinubu never said Nigerians would get 24 hours of power every day. According to them, Obi and his supporters keep bending the truth on purpose.
“What he actually said on that occasion in Lagos, and which Obi and his followers have consistently misquoted for the sake of mischief, was: ‘Whichever way, by all means necessary, you will have electricity, and you will not pay for estimated bills anymore.
“A promise made will be a promise kept. If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me, unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver’,” the statement read.
They reminded everyone that Tinubu’s very first policy move after taking office was signing the Electricity Act, which handed power generation, transmission and distribution down to the states.
Millions of prepaid meters have already gone out, they said, with another seven million on the way. Off-grid solar is spreading too — into schools, hospitals and markets across the country.
Still, they didn’t pretend everything’s perfect. The Presidency admitted the cost of living is still biting hard. But they blamed a big chunk of it on global troubles — the Middle East conflict, the American-Israeli strike on Iran, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz that followed. All of it, they said, messed up global supply chains right when Nigeria’s inflation was finally starting to cool down.
So where did Obi’s resignation call even come from? The UK, apparently.
In a post on X, Obi said he was moved by what he watched unfold in Britain on Monday, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation.
“This morning, I listened to the British Prime Minister’s speech announcing his planned resignation in July.
“As a keen observer of global politics, my primary interest lies in examining what successful nations do right and the structural factors that cause others to lag or struggle with governance and development,” Obi wrote.
A bit of background — Obi ran against Tinubu back in the February 2023 presidential election under the Labour Party. He came third, pulling in around 6.1 million votes. Tinubu won with 8.8 million, while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP landed 6.9 million.
Then in May 2026, Obi jumped ship to the Nigeria Democratic Congress, where he picked up the party’s ticket for another shot at the presidency in 2027.
