Usman Yusuf, former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), says Peter Obi will struggle to gain broad acceptance in northern Nigeria ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Speaking during an interview on Trust TV on Wednesday, Yusuf said Obi’s support base in the north during the 2023 election was largely driven by Christian voters.
“As to Excellency Peter Obi and Excellency Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, they can pitch their tent anywhere. It is their right, it is their prerogative. They’re not going to make a dent at all in the outlook of this election,” he said.
Yusuf also predicted that Bola Ahmed Tinubu would lose the 2027 election.
“Tinubu will lose. Tinubu will come a distant third,” he said.
KWANKWASO WON’T TRANSFER VOTES TO OBI
The former NHIS executive secretary dismissed assumptions that Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso could automatically transfer votes to Obi through a political alliance.
“He thinks the way he has those votes in his pocket, as if they’re his chickens in his chicken coop,” Yusuf said.
“This is the arrogance of these politicians that really irritates us.”
Yusuf questioned what Kwankwaso had done in the last four years to retain the loyalty of his supporters.
“What have you done for them in the last four years, Mr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to keep them and say, ‘Oh yeah, you are mine’?” he asked.
“The red cap and the shouting nonsense — come on, this is serious. We are talking about the lives of millions of our people.”
On Obi’s chances in northern Nigeria, Yusuf said the former Anambra governor would face difficulties because of perceptions surrounding his 2023 campaign.
“Peter Obi will be a hard sell in the north,” he said.
“He’s an easy sell to the Christian north that he came and balkanised because all his campaigns in the north during the 2022 election were in churches.”
Yusuf alleged that some supporters of Obi promoted narratives of Christian persecution in northern Nigeria, which he said damaged the former LP presidential candidate’s image in the region.
“Peter Obi has questions to answer in the north,” he added.
