EXCLUSIVE: South East Group Pressures Igbo Leaders to Persuade Peter Obi to Step Down for Tinubu

A South-East-based political group, Renewed Hope for Greater Nigeria (RHGN), has called on prominent Igbo leaders to persuade former Anambra State governor and Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race and support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.

The group’s South-East leader, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, made the call in Owerri, Imo State, on Saturday after a meeting focused on strategies to secure support for Tinubu across the five South-Eastern states in the 2027 presidential election.

Ngoforo said RHGN plans to engage the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Senator John Azuta Mbata, as well as respected Igbo elder statesmen, including Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.

According to him, the group wants the leaders to lead a delegation to Obi and appeal to him to reconsider his presidential ambition for 2027 in the broader interest of the South-East.

He stressed that the proposed intervention was not aimed at undermining Obi’s political stature but at encouraging him to consider what he described as the long-term strategic interests of the Igbo people.

Ngoforo argued that the South-East should look beyond the immediate political contest and explore alliances that could strengthen the region’s prospects of producing the country’s president in the future.

He said the critical question for the region should be what it could gain by establishing a strategic political partnership with the South-West.

The RHGN leader pointed out that Tinubu, if re-elected in 2027, would be constitutionally limited to one additional term, arguing that the South-East could use the period to build political goodwill and establish a mutually beneficial arrangement with the South-West.

He said such an arrangement could position the region to benefit when presidential power eventually returns to another part of the South.

Rather than seeing the 2027 election as simply a contest that must be won or lost, Ngoforo urged the Igbo political class to consider it an opportunity to build alliances and reciprocal political commitments that could yield benefits in subsequent elections.

He also appealed directly to Obi to consider stepping aside in 2027, arguing that doing so would not necessarily amount to abandoning his presidential ambition.

According to him, Obi could defer his ambition to what he described as a more politically favourable time.

“The issue is bigger than one election and bigger than one individual,” Ngoforo said.

He added that the central political question for the South-East should be how to transform present-day alliances into a pathway towards securing the presidency for the region in the future.