The presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, has pledged that Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso will serve as an active partner rather than a "spare tyre" if their ticket wins the 2027 general elections. Obi made this assertion in his acceptance speech following his official nomination as the party's flagbearer, which was shared via a statement on his X handle on Sunday. The former Anambra State governor formally announced Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, as his running mate on Saturday. Both political figures contested the previous presidential election, finishing third and fourth respectively behind Atiku Abubakar and President Bola Tinubu. Kwankwaso, who ran under the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, retains significant political influence, particularly in Kano State where he secured his sole victory in the last election cycle.
Describing his nomination as a profound call to national service, Obi articulated a roadmap for a "New Nigeria" centered on structural unity, national security, economic recovery, and deep administrative accountability. He expressed his gratitude to the national leadership of the NDC, including the National Chairman, Seriake Dickson, the National Secretary, the National Working Committee, and his nationwide support base. Obi observed that Nigeria stands at a crucial juncture enveloped in uncertainty, characterized by escalating security challenges, economic distress, and a pronounced deficit in public trust toward governance. He cautioned against deep-seated ethnic, regional, and regional cleavages, asserting that the country's demographic diversity must be leveraged as a core strength rather than a fault line.
In addressing national security, the candidate decried the progressive decline in domestic stability, citing global terrorism impact assessments that ranked Nigeria as the eighth most affected nation in 2022, sixth in 2024, and fourth in 2026. He promised a transition toward an intelligence-driven and technologically advanced security framework designed to suppress immediate threats while simultaneously addressing systemic root causes like poverty and mass unemployment. He contrasted the current internal challenges with the historical prestige of the Nigerian Armed Forces, highlighting their highly regarded contributions to international United Nations and regional peacekeeping missions in territories such as Rwanda, Sudan, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Turning to the healthcare sector, the candidate noted that the national healthcare delivery system remains fundamentally weak, observing that only ten to twenty per cent of the country's approximately thirty thousand primary healthcare centres are fully functional. He pledged to elevate health insurance coverage from its current estimated ten per cent to over twenty per cent within four years, scale up public healthcare funding to at least ten per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, and rehabilitate dilapidated primary health facilities across all 8,809 electoral wards while expanding training pipelines for medical personnel.
Obi also characterized the persistent electricity deficit as a binding constraint on industrialization and economic growth, pointing out that Nigeria currently distributes a mere 4,000 megawatts of electricity for a population exceeding 200 million. To remedy this, he committed to a minimum targeted increase of 10,000 megawatts in national power generation and distribution capacity within his first four years in office.
On the economy and human capital, Obi cited projections from the World Food Programme indicating that over 35 million Nigerians face acute food insecurity this year, emphasizing that the country's extensive uncultivated arable land represents a major underutilized asset requiring commercial agricultural investment. On the labor market, he argued that official statistics understate the depth of the employment crisis, estimating that true combined unemployment and underemployment exceed thirty per cent, with youth unemployment climbing past forty per cent. His economic strategy promises targeted fiscal incentives, structured funding access for small and medium enterprises, and a deliberate reduction in the overarching cost of governance. Concluding his address, Obi emphasized that his choice of running mate reflects a desire to break away from the historical marginalization of the vice-presidential office, declaring that his administration will make democracy work with the Vice President as a true partner.
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