Former Education Minister Dr Oby Ezekwesili has reaffirmed her support for Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 general election, while calling for a fundamental redesign of Nigeria’s political system.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Prime Time on Monday, the former World Bank Vice President for Africa explained that the leadership criteria she applied during the 2023 race remained unchanged.
She recalled that, using the same leadership criteria to pick her preferred presidential candidate in the keenly contested 2023 election, she would still support the ex-Anambra State governor, adding that he (Obi) would rank higher.
“In 2023, I made it very clear that, using the criteria on which I see leadership either fail or succeed to govern well, the other two candidates score considerably lower than what you would assign to former Governor Obi, and so I was going to stand with Governor Obi. I don’t think that anything has really significantly changed,” she said.
However, Ezekwesili cautioned against reducing the nation’s political future to a single individual, insisting: “Don’t make this about Peter Obi. I don’t want us to personalise. I’m interested in the construct.”
Lamenting the country’s governance trajectory, the founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance criticized the declining value placed on citizen welfare and human life under the current system. She urged Nigerians to take ownership of their democratic choices rather than accepting the status quo.
“The greatest tragedy of the country is this resignation—that this is our destiny. I say no, this is by design. It is not our destiny; this is by design. This design needs to be challenged,” Ezekwesili said, arguing that the existing framework has failed the populace and requires urgent reform.
To drive meaningful change, the two-time minister called on capable citizens to actively seek political office across local, state, and federal levels rather than relying solely on routine elections to fix structural problems.