Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, has said his party will build a system to transmit results directly from every polling unit to its own situation room during the 2027 general election, insisting the arrangement is not a parallel electoral commission but an assurance that only figures originating from polling units are announced. Obi spoke in an extended interview on Arise News, part of the station’s presidential series, ahead of a poll the channel said is scheduled for 16 January 2027.
He was questioned on his record, his party’s legal standing, his relationship with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the 1966 coup, subsidy removal, security, and whether a divided opposition can defeat President Bola Tinubu. Asked what he meant when he told a crowd in Port Harcourt that he was ready to die for his votes, Obi said the remark had been misreported.
“What I did in Port Harcourt is more of listening to the people. It wasn’t me talking. They were asking questions,” he said. “And one of them said, ‘We are prepared to die this time to defend our votes.’ And I said, to encourage them, that I’m prepared to die with them. It’s symbolic. What we are saying is that we are prepared to ensure that our votes count, and they must count.”
Pressed on how he would ensure it, Obi set out the mechanism.
“We must make sure that at every polling unit, the votes are counted, the votes are recorded properly, the votes are transmitted properly, and we will even have a dual transmission so that as it is going to the proper, designated INEC portal, it is also being transmitted where the people can see it,” he said.
Asked directly whether he was planning a parallel INEC, he said he was not.
“Not at all. All we are saying is that this time around, we will make sure that in every polling unit, we must have a system that transmits to our own situation room the correct results. And I’m sure there are many other agencies that intend to do the same,” he said. “So we are not going to have a situation where somebody just pronounces something that didn’t emanate from the polling unit. Ours is to make sure that the right things are done.”
He added: “There’s nothing difficult in having a simple, free, transparent election. It happens in Ghana. It happens everywhere. So why would we always be involved in something that is negative?”
Obi said the election “is not about parties” but “the people versus the government,” and that Nigeria must get it right this time.
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Obi said the opposition had been too trusting in the last cycle.
“In 2023 we took things for granted. We believed INEC. We believed what they said they would do, because the chairman then was busy travelling all over the world telling the world that he and his team were prepared to do the right thing, when he was actually working for the opposite,” he said.
Asked for his proof, he offered none.
“Everybody knows. You don’t need to. Even he knows. I’m sure if you meet him, he knows in his heart that the wrong thing was done,” he said, adding that he has not met the former chairman and does not wish to. “That is past. Those who think about yesterday and today will miss tomorrow.”
He maintained that he won the 2023 election.
“As long as I live, I will maintain that I won the 2023 presidential election, because those who conducted it know the records. They know why there was a glitch. They know what happened. But I have said I leave it to the past.”
Asked whether he would concede in 2027, he said: “If the election is free, fair and credible, I will. It’s the people that will say who they want to serve them, and I will respect the will of the people. That’s democracy.”
Put to him that Dele Momodu and Akin Osuntokun had suggested former President Olusegun Obasanjo is funding the NDC to reduce Atiku Abubakar’s votes, Obi said he did not know who funds the party.
“I don’t know who is funding the NDC,” he said.
Pressed on how a presidential candidate could not know, he replied: “To date, I can say the NDC accounting, to me, is transparent, and I’ve never seen any credit or any receipt from Obasanjo. But now that you’ve said it, I’ll look out for it.”
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On accusations of party-hopping, he gave his account of leaving the Labour Party.
“I participated in the 2023 election in Labour Party. I left that party because the regulatory authority, INEC, told us in confidence that as long as I remain there, they will not recognise our side of the party, which they did a week after I left,” he said.
Told that his current party exists by court order, he said the pattern was deliberate.
“All this is happening because the government wants to destabilise every opposition party,” he said, adding that the President and his party’s leadership take pleasure in crises within opposition parties.
On Atiku And A Possible Alliance
Obi repeatedly rejected the framing that he had refused to serve as anyone’s running mate.
“Who said so? Where? I said I will be on the ballot. There wasn’t even any party where that offer was on the table. So how do you say I refused to be vice?” he said.
Asked whether he would step down for Atiku Abubakar in a genuine coalition, he said the question was no longer his to answer alone.
“My leader, Atiku, is a candidate of another party. I’m a candidate of another party. So you’re talking about two parties coming together. It’s no longer me or him,” he said.
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He compared it to a corporate merger.
“It’s not something the two CEOs go for a drink and say, ‘We’re going to work together.’ They have to sit down and find a way. A CEO going to a meeting and saying, ‘Can you merge with me?’ has to go back and talk to his shareholders.”
He said the NDC has more than 80 senatorial candidates, about 25 governorship candidates and roughly 200 House of Representatives candidates.
“So you just walk up and say ‘yes’? The institution is made up of people. That’s the irresponsibility we want to stop in this country. People must operate within a represented collegiate system.”
He added: “Whatever decision I’m going to take will be the result of the decision of all of us, not just Mr Peter Obi acting, which is what we have had in our leaders. If I serve this country, I will serve with a team.”
Pressed on what he would offer Atiku were he to step down, Obi refused the question.
“This is not TV conversation. We’re not sharing bread. We’re not sharing Peter Obi and Sons business. We’re talking about a country.”
What he is offering, he said, is “a country where a child of nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody, a country where corruption will be dealt with decisively, where insecurity will be dealt with decisively, where we have unity, where there will be rule, law and order.”
Asked what he would say to a voter in Sokoto who still holds the killing of Sir Ahmadu Bello against the Igbo sixty years on, Obi said the past must be acknowledged but not carried forward.
