Activist Aisha Yesufu has compared Peter Obi to former South African president Nelson Mandela, saying the former Labour Party presidential candidate has the same disposition to serve, leave a legacy and move on.
She made the comparison while reaffirming her vow to oppose Obi if he seeks a second term in office.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, she said she had extracted that commitment directly from Obi after the 2023 presidential election, pressing him to reaffirm a position he had held since 2022.
“If Mr Peter Obi gets into office and decides to do more than one term, I, Aisha Yesufu, and I repeat it here, I will oppose him with everything in me, because he gave his word,” she said.
She recalled that Obi had made the one-term declaration before the 2023 election, adding that she had initially pushed back against it.
“In 2022, when he was saying that, I remember saying to him, oh, sir, please, you can’t be serious. You can’t say you’re going to do one term and move on,” she said.
Yesufu said that after the election, she sat down with Obi and demanded a fresh commitment.
“I need your word on this. I know you had said it before. I want you to repeat it. Is it true you’re going to do just one term?” she said she asked him.
She said Obi told her, “Aisha, I told you even in 2023, and I still mean it, because I said I’m going out and I’m telling people this is what you have said. And I’m putting my name on the line. I don’t joke with my name. I don’t joke with my integrity. When I say something, I mean it.”
Yesufu expressed confidence that Obi would keep to the pledge, describing him as a man who honours his word.
She said part of what drew her to Obi was his stated desire to leave a lasting national legacy rather than cling to power, comparing his outlook to that of Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.
“When he talks, you see him put himself in the likes of Lee Kuan Yew, in the likes of Nelson Mandela, especially more of Nelson Mandela, and that a lot can be done in a country without you having to stay on, on, on, and on,” she said.
She said Obi’s commitment to a single term was rooted in a belief that leaders unencumbered by re-election calculations make better decisions for the country.
“When you know you’re not coming back, you’re not able to make decisions that work more for the nation, rather than decisions that work more for a few people, because you’re thinking of coming back and you need their help later or whatever,” she said.
Yesufu said she envisioned Obi being remembered as the father of modern-day Nigeria a century from now if he followed through on his vision.
“Sitting down with him is seeing him wanting a Nigeria that not only works, but years from now, probably I would say like a hundred years from now, that people will remember him when they talk about Nigeria,” she said.
The PUNCH