2027: Sowore slams NDC, accuses Obi of renting party every election

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has criticised the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and accused its presidential candidate Peter Obi of renting political parties during election seasons. Sowore alleged that Obi’s political moves were not aimed at liberating Nigerians but at helping the ruling establishment deflect public anger and avoid accountability ahead of the 2027 general election.

In a statement posted on X, Sowore accused the NDC of exploiting the political process, claiming that its leaders made ₦9 billion from the sale of nomination forms while running the party from their homes. “The same opportunists and packaged political frauds who made ₦9 billion from selling nomination forms while running a political party from their living rooms,” Sowore wrote, referring to the NDC.

He described Obi as an unprincipled politician who, according to him, changes political platforms ahead of elections without offering a genuine challenge to the political establishment. “This is the problem with unprincipled politicians like Peter Obi, who rent political parties every election season, not to liberate Nigerians, but to…. divert public anger and evade the revolutionary consequences of their actions,” he said.

Sowore also accused supporters of Obi and other political figures of attempting to discredit critics and distract Nigerians from what he described as the country’s underlying social and political problems. He named Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke and Abia State Governor Alex Otti among those he alleged had helped promote narratives that distract from these issues.

“But we cannot be fooled,” Sowore said, insisting that the politicians he criticised were delaying what he described as the liberation of Nigerians. The AAC candidate further alleged that Obi and his allies were not genuinely opposed to Tinubu’s administration but were instead seeking to manage opposition to the president without mounting a strong challenge to his government.

“They don’t oppose Tinubu; they simply don’t want anyone to oppose him strongly enough to bring his disastrous reign to an end. Their politics is about managing opposition, not confronting the system,” he said. Sowore also referred to a remark attributed to Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi’s former running mate in the 2023 presidential election, describing Tinubu as their “favourite uncle”.

Obi, who contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, has since moved to the NDC ahead of the 2027 election.