Obasanjo Brokered Obi-Kwankwaso Ticket – Osuntokun

A former Political Adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Akin Osuntokun, has disclosed that the former Nigerian leader was the one who brokered the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential ticket of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Speaking during an interview on ARISE News yesterday, Osuntokun said the former president remains the principal force behind their joint presidential ticket for the 2027 election.

He dismissed suggestions that Obasanjo was secretly working for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.

Osuntokun maintained that such claims were inconsistent with the former president’s political actions.

He insisted that Obasanjo had instead played a leading role in bringing Obi and Kwankwaso together as running mates under the NDC ticket.

“If you can say that Obasanjo is supporting any ticket, it is the Peter Obi–Kwankwaso ticket. As a matter of fact, he is the principal sponsor of that ticket,” Osuntokun declared.

He argued that allegations linking Obasanjo with Tinubu’s political camp lacked logic, especially considering the former president’s alleged involvement in putting the opposition ticket together.

“So how do you then suggest that he is secretly working for Tinubu? It does not make sense to me. I think that claim is absolute bunkum. The evidence is in the public domain. Obasanjo is playing a major role in supporting the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket. He was the one who brought the two men together,” he added.

When pressed to confirm whether Obasanjo actually brokered the ticket, Osuntokun stood firmly by his words.

“Yes, of course. That’s what I said. He brokered the ticket between Obi and Kwankwaso. Both of them are quite close to him.

“It is a ticket that makes sense and has the potential to make a significant impact in the 2027 election. I can tell you for free that he was the one who brought the ticket together,” Osuntokun stated.

The former adviser also disclosed that discussions for an Obi-Kwankwaso alliance could have materialised much earlier, saying talks had taken place several years before the current arrangement.

“Kwankwaso could have teamed up with Obi four years ago. I remember him saying that if they had agreed then, they would probably have had an arrangement in which they would each spend one term in office, and Kwankwaso would now have been the beneficiary,” Osuntokun said.

He stressed that Obasanjo’s role in the alliance was already public knowledge and questioned why anyone would conclude that the former president was supporting Tinubu simply because the president visited him in 2023.

Osuntokun further described the Obi/Kwankwaso joint ticket as a stronger and more realistic alliance than the Labour Party’s 2023 ticket.

He said a partnership between Obi and Kwankwaso would improve the opposition’s chances in the 2027 presidential election because of Kwankwaso’s political influence, particularly in Kano state.

“Obi and Kwankwaso is a much more realistic, more compelling ticket than the 2023 one. That’s why I said this is a more realistic, more compelling ticket than the 2023 one.

Explaining why he believes the alliance would be stronger, Osuntokun said Kwankwaso’s political base would significantly boost the ticket.

“If you have somebody like Kwankwaso, somebody who, we’ll wait to see how it turns out, you know, who makes, you know, a kind of state politic. That is a big, you know, big bonus, you know, for the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket,” he said.

Apart from that, Osuntokun rejected claims that former President Obasanjo manipulated the 2003 elections to undermine Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors in the South-West.

He described conspiracy theories surrounding that election as unfounded, insisting there were logical reasons why the AD governors lost. “I was very active during that period and I can say categorically that nothing of that sort happened. The election in which the AD governors lost can be explained state by state,” he said.