Presidential aide and veteran journalist, Bayo Onanuga, has criticised former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi for what he described as a distortion of historical facts in the latter’s justification for a one-term presidential pledge.
In a pointed post shared via his verified X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday, Onanuga accused Obi of quoting “wrong examples” in an attempt to back his commitment to serve only one four-year term if elected president in 2027.
“Peter Obi, the aspiring presidential candidate of the fledgling opposition party, must have flunked history in school,” Onanuga wrote.
“In justifying his so-called ‘sacrosanct’ pledge to serve only one term of four years, he cited Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Nelson Mandela as leaders he wanted to emulate.”
Onanuga argued that any reasonable fact-check by Obi, who routinely challenges his supporters to verify his claims, would have shown that the examples he cited were either inaccurate or misleading.
“Obi would have found that Lincoln, at the time he was assassinated, had finished his first term, had won re-election, and had been sworn in for a second term,” he wrote.
He went on to detail the timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, stating that the former U.S. president was elected in March 1861, re-elected in November 1864, and had already resumed a second term in March 1865 before being assassinated in April 1865.
Similarly, Onanuga took aim at the reference to John F. Kennedy, noting that although Kennedy was also assassinated, he was still serving his first term.
“John F. Kennedy, who shared a similar tragic fate with Lincoln, came into office on 20 January 1960 as the 35th President of the United States. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963, before the expiration of his first term.”
On Nelson Mandela, Onanuga conceded that the late South African leader did serve only one term but argued that the context was vastly different, primarily driven by age.
“Mandela served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He declined a run for a second term on account of his age. Mandela, at the end of his first term as president, was 81 years old.”
Taking a jab at Obi’s political rivals, he added pointedly: “Mandela’s example might be more appropriately recommended to Obi’s rival for the opposition ticket, who will turn 81 by 2027.”
