2027: We’ll Resist Attempts To Shut Out Obi/Kwankwaso, Say Obidient, Kwankwasiyya Movements

The Obidient and Kwankwasiyya Movements have vowed to resist what they described as desperate attempts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, are not on the ballot in the 2027 general election.

The Obi and Kwankwaso political groups insisted that the NDC joint presidential ticket of the former Anambra and Kano State governors will be on the ballot and defeat APC President Bola Tinubu.

The two groups, at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, said the recent judgment of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, which set aside an earlier ruling that compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the party, was targeted at Obi and Kwankwaso.

Speaking on behalf of the groups, the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, noted that the ruling came on the heels of several other targeted judgments systematically engineered to dismantle viable opposition platforms.

He said that just three days after Obi joined the NDC, a fictitious case was filed by a faceless entity to deregister the NDC, even though it had no locus standi in the case.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this is a hatchet job by the present administration to ensure that our principal, Mr. Peter Obi, is not on the ballot in 2027.

“We are being completely blunt: the Nigerian judiciary is actively surrendering itself to the dictation and caprices of the APC regime. It is no longer behaving as an impartial guardian of justice; it has been captured and weaponised as a tool of partisan warfare.

“We are here to sound the alarm on a terrifying historical reality. The judiciary exists as the ultimate buffer between peace and chaos. It is the peacekeeping arm of civilised society. But if the judiciary outlives its usefulness, if it tells the common man that the courtroom is merely a marketplace where justice goes to the highest bidder or the most ruthless dictator, then the judiciary itself is signing the death warrant of our nation.

“Let the ruling elite and the compromised benches hear this clearly: when you destroy the court of law, you leave the people with only the court of public opinion and the street.

“If the legal system completely surrenders its integrity to executive manipulation, Nigerians will have no choice but to stop recognising its authority. Citizens will begin to take the law into their own hands. Any sensible person, any true patriot, will want to avoid that tipping point, but the current administration and a compromised judiciary are actively driving us toward that cliff,” he said.

Yunusa stated that the ruling party is utterly terrified by the massive, unstoppable coalition-building under the NDC banner.

“They know they cannot win a free and fair contest on the merits of their disastrous governance. That is why they are desperately deploying state infrastructure and judicial technicalities to deregister and suppress viable opposition parties before a single ballot is cast in 2027.

“But Nigeria belongs to all its citizens, not to a singular political cabal. The political landscape cannot be forcefully cleared to create a monolithic, one-party dictatorship hell-bent on running this country into the ground. The presidency must hear this: only the Nigerian people have the right to choose their leaders.

“We now demand that the current administration should not use the judiciary to manipulate democracy. We shall defend democracy and protect judicial independence. Justice must prevail, and there must be no political manipulation. Let the will of the people prevail.

“The joint ticket of His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, and His Excellency, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, will be on the ballot in 2027, and we will defeat Tinubu, the APC, INEC, the judiciary and all other state machinery working against a new Nigeria,” he added.