‘You Lost, Stop Dreaming of a Victory You Never Had’ — Onanuga Tells Peter Obi

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has urged former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to accept the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, insisting that he was not robbed of victory.

Reacting to Obi’s interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Onanuga said the former Anambra State governor should stop claiming he won the election, describing such assertions as a refusal to accept reality.

“You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election. You came third,” Onanuga said, adding that the Supreme Court had dismissed Obi’s petition challenging the election result.

According to the presidential aide, Obi’s continued insistence that he was rigged out of the election mirrors the views of some of his supporters despite the courts having upheld President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Onanuga also faulted Obi’s comparison of his political career with Tinubu’s, arguing that the President has remained within the progressive political family throughout his career, from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and now the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He contrasted this with Obi’s movement from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party and, most recently, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), describing the former governor as a “political nomad.”

Onanuga further alleged that Obi had repeatedly abandoned political parties instead of helping to rebuild them after elections or internal crises.

He maintained that Tinubu built political structures over the years rather than moving from one platform to another in pursuit of political ambition.

The presidential spokesman concluded by urging Obi to move on from the 2023 election and focus on constructive political engagement rather than, in his words, “dreaming of a victory that you never had.”