Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has reaffirmed her support for Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 presidential election, saying her assessment of the former Anambra State governor on leadership remains unchanged.
Ezekwesili, who spoke during an interview on ARISE NEWS, said she would still choose Obi if the same leadership criteria she applied during the 2023 presidential election were used.
She said those criteria included character, competence and capacity to govern, rather than ethnicity, religion or other primordial considerations.
“In 2023, I made it very clear that, using the criteria on which I see leadership either fail or succeed to govern well… the other two candidates score considerably lower than what you would assign to former Governor Obi, and so I was going to stand with Governor Obi.
“I don’t think that anything has really significantly changed,” she said.
Obi is now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress after emerging as the party’s sole presidential aspirant and subsequently securing its nomination in May. He previously contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party.
But Ezekwesili cautioned against reducing Nigeria’s political debate to Obi or any other individual candidate.
“Don’t make this about Peter Obi. I don’t want us to personalise. I’m interested in the construct,” she said.
Her comments form part of a broader argument she has consistently made about the quality of Nigeria’s political system and the need for fundamental reforms.
In June, Ezekwesili called for comprehensive constitutional restructuring, arguing that changing the policing architecture alone would not resolve the country’s deeper governance problems.
During the latest interview, she said Nigerians must reject the idea that worsening insecurity, poverty and declining living standards are simply their national destiny.
“What we have to show for it is the complete collapse of the dignity of the human being and the dignity of life,” she said.
Ezekwesili argued that repeatedly conducting elections without changing the quality of political leadership would not be enough to address Nigeria’s problems.
“I am challenging that and saying that Nigerians should at least vote for themselves. If no one votes for you in terms of the leaders you’re choosing, vote for yourselves,” she said.
The former minister called for a fresh national conversation capable of establishing shared values, stronger social cohesion and a clearer social contract between citizens and government.
She said Nigeria had failed to undertake the kind of conversation required after independence to establish a common national vision, arguing that the country had remained trapped within a political design that had not delivered adequately for its citizens.
“The design that we run right now has not worked for us; we do need to design again,” she said.
Ezekwesili also urged capable Nigerians to enter politics and contest elections at the local, state and federal levels.
According to her, changing the occupants of the presidency alone would not solve Nigeria’s problems unless the wider political class and institutions were also transformed.
She acknowledged that economic hardship could influence voters, particularly citizens struggling to meet their immediate needs.
Ezekwesili said research associated with FixPolitics and the School of Politics, Policy and Governance had shown how low productivity and household incomes could affect citizens’ political choices.
She nevertheless argued that voters could reach a point where frustration with prevailing conditions outweighed short-term political incentives.
“But we’ve also seen situations where the people vote for themselves. They come to that point where they sort of say, ‘You know what? Okay, we’ve had it. We’ve really had it. We can’t continue on this trajectory because it actually is too injurious,’” she said.
The former World Bank Africa vice president has remained active in campaigns for political and institutional reform through organisations including the School of Politics, Policy and Governance and #FixPolitics.
Her comments come as Nigeria’s opposition landscape continues to evolve ahead of the 2027 election, with Obi having moved from the ADC-led opposition alliance to the NDC before securing the party’s presidential nomination.
For Ezekwesili, however, the bigger issue is not simply who wins the presidency in 2027.
She wants Nigerians to use the election to demand a political system capable of consistently producing leaders with the character, competence and capacity to serve the public interest.
