President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has urged the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to accept the outcome of the last general election, insisting that he did not win the poll.
Onanuga said Obi should stop claiming victory in the 2023 presidential election, describing his position as a refusal to accept the Supreme Court’s judgment, which upheld Tinubu’s election.
He was reacting to Obi’s recent interview on Channels Television, during which the former Anambra State governor maintained that he won the election but was denied victory through electoral manipulation.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Onanuga described the interview as a public relations setback for Obi.
Commenting on the interview, Onanuga rejected Obi’s comparison of his political career with that of President Tinubu, particularly on the issue of party affiliation.
According to him, Tinubu has remained within the progressive political movement throughout his career, beginning with the Social Democratic Party, on whose platform he was elected senator during the Third Republic.
Onanuga also criticised Obi for continuing to dispute the outcome of the 2023 election despite the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his petition.
“You lost, Peter. You didn’t win that election,” he said.
While acknowledging that Obi performed strongly at the polls despite what he described as a limited political structure, Onanuga said it was time for the former governor to accept the election result and move on.
“It is time you accepted the stark reality of the loss. Stop dreaming of a victory that you never had,” he added.
