2027: Shettima Accuses Obi of Making Unsubstantiated Claims About 2023 Election

Vice President Kashim Shettima has criticised former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi over his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, challenging him to provide evidence to support the assertion.

Shettima spoke on Wednesday at the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council at the State House Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He described Obi’s claim as a “delusion of grandeur”, accusing him of making unsubstantiated statements about the outcome of the election.

“I respect Peter Obi, but he has gone beyond his mastery of philosophy to make bogus claims about winning the 2023 presidential election without producing evidence to buttress his assertion. This is called delusion of grandeur,” Shettima said.

The Vice President also criticised Obi’s economic proposals, particularly his comparisons between Nigeria and other countries, including Bangladesh.

Shettima argued that policies that work in one country cannot necessarily be applied to another without considering differences in population, economic structures, institutions and national circumstances.

He likened Obi’s approach to attempting to fit a shirt made for a smaller frame onto a much larger one.

According to him, Nigeria’s size and complexities require economic policies tailored to its specific circumstances rather than reliance on statistics and solutions drawn from other countries.

“A country of over 200 million people cannot be governed through borrowed statistics and economic prescriptions detached from its peculiarities,” he said.

Obi, who contested the 2023 presidential election on the Labour Party platform, finished third behind President Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, according to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Obi and Atiku challenged the election outcome in court, but their petitions were dismissed, with the Supreme Court upholding Tinubu’s victory.

Obi has continued to maintain that he won the election despite the judicial decisions.

He is seeking the presidency again in the 2027 general election under the Nigeria Democratic Congress.