Former presidential candidate Peter Obi invoked the memory of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to deliver a pointed message to Nigeria’s current political class: true leadership means accepting the outcome of a free and fair election, even when it goes against you.
Obi made the remarks during a Monday night interview on Arise News, where he reflected on his experiences during the Yar’Adua administration and drew sharp contrasts with what he described as the troubling state of Nigerian democracy today.
According to Obi, Yar’Adua was so committed to democratic principles that he personally called the then INEC chairman to ensure opposition parties remained stable and that elections would be free and credible.
“I recall him calling the INEC chairman then and saying, ‘I don’t want any problem in the opposition party. I want the parties to be stable, functioning very well, and we will have free, credible, transparent elections. If I lose as a sitting president, I will go home,'” Obi recalled.
For Obi, that kind of leadership is not just admirable — it is the standard every Nigerian political actor should be held to.
“The government should ensure the protection of the opposition. In fact, they should make the opposition stronger,” he said.
But Obi’s message came with a heavy dose of frustration directed at those who once championed democracy only to abandon its principles once they attained power.
“Look at what has happened to democracy; it is now being destroyed by those who yesterday were victims of the same thing,” he said, without naming specific individuals.
He expressed particular disappointment at politicians who loudly demanded accountability and threatened consequences if democratic standards were not upheld — but have since fallen silent or reversed course after gaining power.
“People who were shouting to the world, threatening to bring down everything if the right things are not done and now, when they have the opportunity, that’s what is surprising me in Nigeria,” Obi added.
The Labour Party stalwart called for a return to the values that once gave Nigeria’s democracy its credibility, insisting that respect for elections and their outcomes remains the foundation of any functioning democratic system.
