By Eshioromeh Sebastian
The Presidency has responded to Peter Obi’s call for President Bola Tinubu’s resignation, describing the demand as misplaced and based on a distorted view of Nigeria’s realities.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, rejected Obi’s comparison of Nigeria’s situation with that of the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced his planned resignation.
Earlier, Obi had taken to his X account to urge President Tinubu to step down, citing Starmer’s decision as a model of political accountability.
He argued that Tinubu had previously demanded the resignation of former President Goodluck Jonathan over economic hardship and insecurity, particularly following the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping.
Obi also recalled that Tinubu had challenged the electorate not to vote for him for a second term if he failed to deliver on his campaign promises, including improved electricity supply.
According to Obi, conditions have worsened under Tinubu, with electricity supply remaining unreliable, insecurity intensifying in many areas, and economic hardship deepening rather than easing.
“We are in the worst possible condition,” Obi stated, adding that he joined “Nigerians of goodwill in calling for the resignation of the President over monumental failure in governance.”
However, Onanuga argued that Obi’s comparison with the UK is fundamentally flawed, pointing out that Nigeria operates a presidential system with a fixed four-year executive tenure, unlike the UK’s parliamentary system.
“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 4-year term,” Onanuga said.
The presidential aide noted that recent electoral victories recorded by President Tinubu’s party in Ekiti State and Senatorial constituencies in Nasarawa, Enugu, Ondo, and Rivers demonstrate that “President Tinubu and his party are popular with Nigerians.”
On security, Onanuga stated that President Tinubu inherited longstanding challenges but has made progress, including the rescue of hundreds from captivity, the neutralisation of terrorist kingpins, and the removal of over 15,000 terrorists from forests and communities.
On the economy, Onanuga cited positive GDP growth, foreign reserves exceeding $50 billion, increased oil production from under one million to about 1.8 million barrels per day, and a stock market that has risen from 50,000 to over 250,000 as evidence of progress.
The presidential aide also addressed Obi’s claim about electricity, stating that Tinubu never promised 24-hour electricity for all.
Onanuga said the President signed the Electricity Act upon taking office, enabling states to generate and distribute electricity independently, while millions of prepaid meters have been rolled out to end estimated billing.
Onanuga also noted that for three years under Tinubu’s leadership, there has been no disruption of the academic calendar by trade unions such as ASUU, describing this as a campaign promise kept.
Regarding the high cost of living, Onanuga attributed it to global factors, including tensions in the Middle East and the recent disruption to the global supply system following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
He concluded by stating that Obi’s call for President Tinubu’s resignation “is not a call to hold the leader accountable. It is merely a political grandstand and an unworthy distraction just hours after President Tinubu’s party recorded resounding victories in the weekend polls.”
Onanuga further said the Presidency is now convinced that Peter Obi “lives in his self-constructed echo chambers, where he reels off lie after lie to himself and believes his self-created reality about the situation in Nigeria.”
President Tinubu, he said, has a team of thinkers and doers and “focuses on solutions, not rhetoric, investing in reforms, stabilising the economy, improving security, and laying the groundwork for a more prosperous Nigeria.”
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