‘Wandering Politician’: Onanuga’s Broadside Raises Fresh Questions About Obi’s Politics

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has reignited debate over Peter Obi’s political direction, criticising the former Labour Party presidential candidate’s decision to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and branding him a “wandering politician.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Onanuga described Obi’s defection as driven by bitterness over the 2023 presidential election, where Obi finished third, and questioned his leadership credentials. He dismissed Obi’s frequent references to foreign development models, books, and academic authorities as rhetorical flourishes that do not amount to evidence of governing capacity, particularly given his record as Anambra State governor.

Onanuga contrasted Obi’s approach with President Tinubu’s reform agenda, citing petrol subsidy removal, exchange-rate liberalisation, and efforts to attract investment as examples of “homegrown solutions” beginning to stabilise the economy. He argued that Nigeria requires original thinkers rooted in local realities, not leaders who seek to replicate models from other countries. Peter Obi has staked his claim to lead Nigeria on the record of his prudent management of funds while he was the Governor of Anambra State.

Party-Hopping and the Question of Political Substance

The sharpest edge of Onanuga’s critique lies in Obi’s political trajectory. Obi began his rise in the **All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), under which he served two terms as Governor of Anambra State. He later defected to the **Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), emerging as Atiku Abubakar’s vice-presidential running mate in the 2019 election.

In 2022, Obi left the PDP for the Labour Party, where he became the face of the “Obidient” movement and secured a strong third-place finish in the 2023 presidential race. His move to ADC marks his fourth major party affiliation in under two decades.

This pattern, Onanuga argues, raises doubts about whether Obi genuinely seeks to change Nigerian political practice or is pursuing the presidency through the same tactical manoeuvring that has long defined elite politics—treating parties as vehicles of convenience rather than institutions built on ideology, organisation, and long-term commitment.

That question predates Onanuga’s intervention. In Rational Amateurism: The Atiku and Peter Obi Campaigns Compared, Arbiterz observed that Labour’s 2023 surge reflected protest sentiment more than organisational strength. The analysis warned that without deliberate party-building, policy depth, and sustained grassroots engagement, Labour risked becoming another regionally bounded platform rather than a durable national opposition.

Obi’s departure from Labour Party appears to reinforce that concern. Instead of consolidating Labour’s post-election momentum by strengthening its structures and articulating a consistent policy alternative, the ADC move suggests a return to elite coalition-building and electoral calculation—approaches indistinguishable from mainstream Nigerian political practice.

At the heart of the controversy is a strategic dilemma for Obi. If his political project is to represent a genuine break from personality-driven politics, repeated party switching weakens that claim. If, however, his overriding objective is to secure power within Nigeria’s existing political framework, then Onanuga’s “wandering politician” label may resonate beyond partisan lines.

In that sense, the episode is less about a single exchange of political barbs and more about whether Nigeria’s most prominent post-2023 opposition figure is drifting back toward the very political habits his movement once promised to reform.