Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has returned what looks like tantrums at Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister regarded as an aggressive campaigner for the reelection of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Obi made the remark in Port Harcourt few days after Wike stated that the opposition would arrest him should they be allowed to win the 2027 presidential election.
Wike was understood to be justifying his frontline role against the opposition, trying to make it look like he was fighting for self-preservation. Obi seemed to catch his drift and returned the tantrum.
Speaking in Port Harcourt at the EUI, the largest event centre in the Nige Delta, Obi and his running mate Rabiu Kwankwaso, made it clear that they would protect and defend their votes. Obi also doused fears over manipulation of iRev backend.
The presidential candidate took swipes at the presidency, saying despite a 4.43% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Q2 2026, and pointed to the galloping poverty indices in the country which he attributed to wasteful spending by Tinubu and preceding national leadership.
Obi, who was addressing a 4,000-capacity hall with an overflow of more than 500 persons on September 3, 2026, described wasteful spending and corruption as the bane of underdevelopment in the country.
He was speaking at the ‘Obi Talks Nigeria: Port Harcourt Town Hall,’ alongside Kwankwaso; Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, NDC national chairman; and Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Rivers State governorship candidate of the party.
Obi told Rivers citizens, members of the Hausa and Igbo communities in the state and traditional rulers: ‘We are committed to the Nigerian state and we will use Nigerian money effectively for Nigeria. And I’ll give you an example.
‘When we talk about healthcare, we are promising that in four years we will ensure that functional and proper healthcare will be provided in each of our wards; we have today 8,809 wards. But we are promising that we will have 10,000 functional primary healthcare (centres).
‘Today in Nigeria, we have about 25,000 people with kidney problems. We have explosion in cancer because of the food people eat. We are going to do prevention. We have less than 10 functional cancer centers. I assure you that we will ensure that this is increased to at least 50,’ he said.
Obi explained that ‘The maximum you need to have a proper health care center is about 100 million naira. So for 10,000, all you need is a trillion. Look at how much money they are making today.’
He placed the cost of establishing over 20 cancer centers at about N350 billion, adding: ‘That is the amount our president used to buy new planes. That plane has no value, except that we are paying more money to keep it. He has gone to Europe now. That plane will park there. We are paying parking fees, we are paying maintenance, we are paying everything.
‘That is not the country that is in need. He has spent a total of nearly N40 billion in all his trips in the past two years. In 2025, money released for Ministry of Health is 36 million. For capital projects in Ministry of Health, it’s N36 million. When our president has spent over N17 billion traveling, that N6 million is 0.01% of that 17 billion. We must stop this waste. What we want to do now is to dismantle this waste and criminality.
‘And I am pledging to you today that I will dismantle that. This country belongs to you. It doesn’t belong to them. Today, our minimum wage is a bag of rice. Meanwhile, people in government are living as if they came from the moon. This is the time to stop it,’ Obi said.
He echoed earlier comments by Kwankwaso, his running mate, who had stressed that the Kwankwasiyya Movement (which he leads), and the Obidients will form the NDC’s structure and defence of votes cast in 2027.
Obi dismissed fears over intimidation of voters at the polling units and manipulation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s iRev, adding that he is equally ready to defend the votes in 2027 with his life if necessary.
He further took a swipe at the political situation in Rivers State, describing ‘all the things that are happening in the state’ as intimidation.
Obi said, ‘Nobody should be talking as if the state belongs to him. Nobody should be talking as if Nigeria belongs to them. For us, we want to be friends of everybody. And we will serve people.’
The NDC presidential candidate, while possibly reacting to fears by Wike that he could become a target for arrest in 2027 if Tinubu lost re-election, allayed any fears of intimidating the opposition if elected.
He said, ‘If you say, ‘Oh, if Peter Obi comes to government, they’ll be victims,’ let me assure you, no Nigerian will be victim when we come. Every Nigerian will be Nigerian. Our commitment is to the youth of Nigeria so they can put food on their table and get jobs. We want to stop the abuse of Nigeria because this abuse is taking tolls on our youth populace.’