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SUNDAY UDEH-OKOYE, Ex PDP Nat. Sec.
Former Anambra State governor and Labour Party’s flag bearer at the last 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, must be a deeply troubled man at the moment. Though he may not have publicly expressed his fears, but he certainly cannot be the least pleased with the turn out of events in the last couple of months and even in the recent weeks. For Obi, a lot of the dynamics with which he triumphed in the south east during the 2023 presidential election look to have changed significantly. The massive amount of votes from the south east states gave him a pretty strong footing during the elections. But all of that has changed now. It appears he no longer wields the sort of popularity and influence that he wielded during the 2023 presidential election and some critical recent developments are clear pointers to this fact. The foregoing explains how the reality started to sink in for Obi.
It is no longer news that Peter Obi has since declared his intention to be part of the ADC coalition, a group of politicians who have come together with the intent to unseat the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027. He got his first shocker when he got to ADC and was not given the star treatment he expected. Unlike in 2023, under the Labour Party when he picked the party’s presidential ticket on a platter of gold, Obi has been told he would have to fight to earn the ticket like other aspiring candidates such as Atiku Abubakar and Rotimi Amaechi. This has not gone down well with him, hence the warning from the ADC hierarchy and other personalities like PDP chieftain, Segun Sowunmi, telling him in clear terms that he will not be handed the ADC presidential ticket on a plate, he would have to go through the primaries like everybody else! The message is clear – Peter Obi is no longer the 2023 presidential elections. He can no longer claim to have all the south east sttes locked down for the coming 2027 elections like he did in 2023.
And many politicians are now taunting the former Labour Party presidential candidate with what they describe as the new reality. One of such politicians is Sunday Udeh-Okoye, the former National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He recently made a bold prediction about the political climate in Enugu State: he said the APC would win the 2027 presidential election handily.
Speaking and responding to questions during a Channels Television video interview, in the midst of a wave of high-profile PDP defections, Udeh-Okoye credited the APC’s then-embryonic organizational presence in the Southeast state with Peter Obi’s 2023 victory in Enugu, where the Labour Party candidate received a strong showing.
He pointed out how important PDP members, including himself, were missing from the ruling party’s ranks at the time and said, “Obi, who ran on the Labour Party platform in the 2023 presidential election, defeated the APC in Enugu because the APC had no structure in the state.” He maintained that despite regional dynamics, Obi’s momentum was able to persist because of this fundamental vacuum.
Following the large-scale migration of PDP members to the APC, Udeh-Okoye’s study highlights a revolutionary change that essentially transferred the opposition’s electoral apparatus into the framework of the ruling party.
“Anybody you like. field in any political party, I assure you in Enugu State APC will win,” he said, dismissing any remaining threat from Obi’s “Obidient” movement, as more than 80% of PDP executives, lawmakers, and local authorities now support the APC.
This realignment has strengthened the APC’s grassroots operations and positioned it for uncontested domination regardless of national candidates. It was sparked by Governor Peter Mbah’s leadership and the state’s developmental advancements.
Udeh-Okoye highlighted that Enugu’s readiness—from sufficient campaign funds to kept governance pledges—was a major factor in this momentum.
With three of the five Southeast states—Imo, Ebonyi, and now Enugu—under APC control, indicating a shift away from past PDP allegiance, the defector’s confidence is consistent with larger regional trends.
By highlighting changing attitudes that support the party as a means of achieving equitable representation, he refuted stories of Igbo opposition to the APC, which were based on earlier beliefs of bias under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Without providing any details,Udeh-Okoye alluded to future expansions when he said, “Another state in the region will soon join the APC.” He also credited President Bola Tinubu’s federal initiatives for nurturing this goodwill.
As it is presently, it has become crystal clear that Peter Obi will not enjoy the smooth run he had in the east like he did in 2023. It will be recalled that, few weeks ago, the Igbo apex group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, released a statement stating categorically that no Igbo man will contest president in 2027 against the incumbent President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying that the possibility of the Southeast producing the president of Nigeria can only be achieved in 2035, not 2027, thereby rejecting a Peter Obi candidacy.
In a statement in Abakaliki signed by Deputy President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo faction, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and the National Spokesman, Chief Thompson Ohia, they revealed that the decision was taken after a crucial meeting with Southeast political leaders, Imeobi and Nzukoumunna, in which they resolved that no Igboman will contest president in 2027 against the incumbent President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, signaling the rejection of a one-term bid.
They maintained that the most practicable political vehicle for the pursuit of the Igbo presidency lies within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2035 if the zoning formula is altered, saying that among notable Igbo sons, the Minister of Works, Sen. David Umahi, stands out as the most outstanding candidate to lead the country. This, very clearly, shows that a large chunk of the east may not be standing with Obi and things may even get tougher for him by 2027.
The man many political observers have credited for the decline in Obi’s influence in the east is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Widely regarded as a Master Political Strategist, Tinubu has systematically diminished Obi’s strong influence by getting the eastern governors to support his 2027 aspiration. One of the ways the President was able to achieve this was his strategy to warm his way into the hearts of the southeast governors. The southeast is considered the stronghold of Peter Obi, where he got almost 100 per cent of the votes from the region in the last election. The President himself has been busy making very strong alliances ahead of 2027. Those who have been following the political happenings closely will recall that President Tinubu, since his assumption of office, has tactically started the campaign for his second term. He has been building bridges across party lines, and there seems to be a special proximity between him and governors of the southeast states, particularly, the three states under the opposition.
So, it is not going to be a walk in the park for Peter Obi in the south east anymore, he will have to sweat it out in 2027 to beat President Tinubu.
