Single Term: Peter Obi’s Mandela Comparison is an Insult – Arabambi

Abayomi Arabambi, the factional National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), has criticized Peter Obi for invoking Nelson Mandela’s single-term presidency in South Africa to justify his own pledge to serve only one term if elected Nigeria’s president in 2027.

Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, recently reaffirmed his commitment to a four-year tenure, stating that eight years are unnecessary to “fix Nigeria.” He cited historical leaders like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Mandela as examples of impactful short-term leadership.

However, Arabambi dismissed the comparison, arguing that Obi’s record does not measure up to the legacies of the global icons he referenced.

Speaking on Channels Television’s “Morning Brief’ on Tuesday, Arabambi said it is an insult for the former governor of Anambra State to compare himself to Mandela, saying they are parallel lines.

“It’s an insult for Peter Obi to compare himself to Nelson Mandela. They are just two parallel lines that can never meet. Here is a man who could nit build labour party. You’ve heard him when he said ‘I’m not here to build labour party, I’m opnly here to build Nigeria.’ He said it openly that he doesn’t have any business building labour party and that excatly is what he’s doing today,” the LP chieftain said.

Citing Obi’s purported promise to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the platform through which he served Anambra for eight years as a governor, Arabambi said Obi should not be trusted because of his antecedents.

He said, “Nobody should trust Obi because of his antecedent. Nobody forced him to say he would not leave APGA, but there was an issue between him and Peter Ume over the conduct of local government election then, which he did three months to the expiration of his tenure and that was what caused their separation and he left to join the PDP…Obi cannot be telling us now that he will do one term when ab initio he vowed to die in APGA.”

Obi’s pledge to serve a single term has become one of the most debated political topics ahead of the 2027 election. While critics view the promise as a sign of desperation, his supporters argue that he has the vision and capacity to transform the country within four years.