Mr Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu, has criticised a recent interview granted by the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
The former governor of Anambra State granted the interview on Channels Television on Sunday.
His comments on national issues and his 2027 presidential ambition have been generating mixed reactions from netizens.
Reacting, Onanuga, in a statement on Monday, claimed that he turned off his TV about 30 minutes into the programme, describing it as “a PR disaster.”
The presidential spokesperson pointed out “two issues that caught my attention while I watched him.”
“First, when his interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye, questioned him about his political nomadism, he tried to make the question a non-issue, saying, with a smirk on his face, that he has not done anything different from what President Bola Tinubu has done in his political odyssey.
Dismissing Obi’s remarks, Onanuga said, “Tinubu has not been jumping from one ideologically different party to another. Since he joined party politics in 1991/92, Tinubu has stayed on the progressive path all the way.
“He started with the Social Democratic Party and won an election to the Senate on the party’s platform, polling the highest vote ever by any candidate in the country.”
He noted that the second issue that caught his attention was the former governor of Anambra State’s claim that he won the 2023 presidential election.
Onanuga said Obi “didn’t win that election. You came third, and if not for the bloc vote from your ethnic group, you would have ended up a miserable third.
“Seun pointedly asked you whether you believed you were rigged out. You fell into his trap by concurring. You did well in the election, no doubt—a politician with no structure in the states, except the noisy followers on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
“But I was utterly surprised that, more than three years after the Supreme Court threw away your petition, you are still in denial of the loss, and you still nurse the delusion that you won the election, echoing the sentiment of your gullible followers on the streets.
“Mr Obi, it is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had.”
