Amid growing rumours of a possible coalition among opposition leaders to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has said that the only coalition he is interested in is the one against hunger, poverty, and the terrible state of healthcare and education in Nigeria.
Obi, who visited the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kubwa in Abuja on Monday, emphasised that he was not desperate for any position.
“I am in a coalition against hunger, in coalition against poverty, coalition against bad state of health. Politics for me is not about position, it is about doing the right thing.
“In this country we talk about politics and abandon what we should be talking about. What we should be talking about is how we are going to educate the children,” he said.
Obi came third behind President Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, with many believing that a coalition between him, Atiku, and other opposition parties will defeat Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
The former governor of Anambra State dismissed a deal to run as a vice presidential candidate in 2027, insisting that those saying he had an agreement to deputise anyone were playing politics of selfish ambitions detrimental to the growth of the country.
Obi also made a financial donation to a school project in the diocese.
He said that because the government has failed woefully to deliver free and qualitative basic education, the church had had to bear the huge burden.
Obi was seen with a former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, exchanging pleasantries with President Tinubu after the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Sunday.
Commenting on that, the former Anambra governor said that he was not an enemy of the President and only accorded the necessary courtesy to him in Rome as protocol demanded.
He reemphasised that the only enemy he has is corruption and corrupt leaders who have made life difficult for the Nigerian people.