Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has called on President Bola Tinubu to resign or drop his 2027 re-election bid.
Obi issued the demand in a statement released on Monday, July 6, 2026, through his spokesman, Idris Zekeri, and in a separate post on X titled “Worsening Leadership Crisis in the Country Now Evident.”
He points to one specific failure: Tinubu’s alleged silence toward Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde since 39 schoolchildren and seven teachers were abducted from a school in the state on May 15, 2026.
That’s now 52 days without what Obi calls a meaningful gesture of solidarity from the presidency.
“This appeal is motivated by patriotism, not politics. A New Nigeria is Possible,” the statement read.
Obi, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate before his recent move to the NDC, says he has raised the Oyo case publicly twice, including a direct appeal to the kidnappers.
He also says he called Makinde twice to offer solidarity, describing the abduction as a Nigerian tragedy rather than a state problem.
Why Obi Compares This To Chibok
Obi’s sharpest line rests on a 2014 parallel: the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls under then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Tinubu, then an opposition leader, had demanded Jonathan’s resignation for taking 19 days to contact Borno State’s governor after that abduction.
“That call for IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION should actually be the case in this matter,” Obi wrote.
He argues more than 13 school kidnappings have occurred under Tinubu’s watch, yet the President allegedly still hasn’t called Makinde after seven weeks.
“I cannot imagine any issue more important than the lives of our kidnapped children, their teachers, and the many other Nigerians being held captive across the country,” Obi wrote.
Drawing on his own record as Anambra State governor, Obi said former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Jonathan all made a habit of phoning governors during major security crises.
What Happened In Ibadan On July 3
Obi’s claim about the missing phone call didn’t come from speculation; he says he heard it directly from Makinde.
On Friday, July 3, Obi travelled to Ibadan with economist Prof. Pat Utomi to meet the governor and discuss the state’s security situation.
“But, to my utmost shock, I discovered that, contrary to my assumption that they had been in regular communication over the matter, Governor Seyi Makinde had not received a single call from President Bola Tinubu,” Obi wrote.
“The government and people of Oyo State, more than 50 days after the abduction of the schoolchildren without any tangible effort toward their rescue, should rightly feel bitter and abandoned,” he added.
He closed his statement by repeating his demand: resign, or stay out of the 2027 race entirely.
Can Tinubu Actually Resign?
In an earlier similar call by Obi to President Tinubu to resign, presidential aide Bayo Onanuga pushed back on the comparison Obi draws to other democracies, arguing Nigeria runs a presidential system with a fixed four-year term rather than a parliamentary one where leaders step down under pressure.
Under Nigeria’s constitution, a sitting president can resign only through a formal written notice to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, after which the Vice President takes over.
That legal path exists, but nothing in Nigeria’s history suggests a president facing political pressure alone has ever used it.
Whether Obi’s renewed pressure changes that calculation, or simply becomes another marker in the run-up to 2027, is something only the coming weeks will show.
Many political pundits believe that Obi is bringing the political drama full circle to the president, who now is faced with even worse security challenges.
