By SUNTV Global Channel | January 7, 2026
Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has alleged that Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, reached out to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to persuade him to join Obi’s presidential campaign shortly after the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election.
Bwala made the claim during an interview on The Clarity Zone podcast, while responding to comments allegedly attributed to Obi, in which the former Anambra State governor reportedly referred to him as a “character.”
Reacting to the remark, Bwala said he was not offended, arguing instead that the description better suited Obi himself.
“Are you not a character? In a movie, an actor is a character, isn’t he?” Bwala said. “He is actually the character-in-chief.”
He accused Obi of what he described as political theatrics, alleging that the former governor sold Nigerians an unrealistic image during the 2023 presidential campaign.
“What he’s playing is what we call theatrics,” Bwala said. “You are presenting a fictitious picture of a reality that will never exist. That was the hope he sold to his people.”
Bwala further claimed that Obi’s supporters became disillusioned after the election, following what he described as the collapse of the “fantasy” surrounding Obi’s candidacy.
“After the election, when reality dawned and he lost, they couldn’t manage the picture of the fantasy painted in their minds,” he said, alleging that Obi’s supporters resorted to attacking critics across social media platforms.
“They don’t have a particular platform where they stay. They go to everybody’s page, abuse you there, then migrate and abuse others,” Bwala added.
The Tinubu aide also criticised Obi’s record as governor of Anambra State, insisting that his comments were based on verifiable facts rather than personal insults.
“I never intended to insult him,” Bwala said. “What I said can either be substantiated or debunked.”
He alleged that during Obi’s tenure, medical doctors in Anambra State embarked on repeated strikes due to poor funding and working conditions, accusing Obi of prioritising savings over infrastructural development.
“I said he was more about saving money than investing in infrastructure,” Bwala stated. “And even the money he saved, he saved it in a bank where he was chairman.”
Bwala further claimed that Obi avoided answering questions about whether he served as chairman of the bank and whether he benefited from dividends linked to state deposits.
“When you ask him those questions, he runs away from answering whether he was chairman or not,” he alleged.
Responding to Obi’s alleged claim that Bwala had never visited Anambra State, the presidential aide dismissed the assertion as false, insisting he was familiar with the state and the South-East region.
“I can tell you the road that leads to his house,” Bwala said, mentioning several communities in Anambra and neighbouring states to support his claim.
On his assertion that Obi attempted to recruit him, Bwala said the contact was made through former President Obasanjo while he was outside the country.
“The day former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom I never had his contact from Adam, called me, I was in London,” Bwala said. “I was about to enter the tube station when the call came. He was at Transcorp Hilton with Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed.”
He added that an ambassador facilitated the communication and insisted his claims were verifiable.
“I’m calling names,” Bwala said. “I didn’t say spirits or angels.”
Bwala concluded by saying he was unbothered by Obi’s alleged remarks, maintaining that the issues he raised were substantive and deserved clear answers rather than name-calling.
— SUNTV Global Channel, reporting politics, power, and accountability in Nigeria
