Former Anambra State governor and presidential aspirant under the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, has dismissed suggestions that he is avoiding former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Obi spoke on Friday night, May 22 in Cape Town, South Africa, on the sidelines of the Spier Dialogue 2026, a pan-African governance forum, amid growing speculation about the state of his political relationship with Atiku.
“There are very few human beings who are as close as I am to Atiku. So I can’t be running from him. This man is my very respected leader and elder brother,” Obi said.
“I don’t run from him. Never. It has nothing to do with running from anybody. I’ve never run from anybody. I just believe that I do things differently,” he added.
The remarks come months after both politicians attempted to build a coalition platform ahead of the 2027 election using the African Democratic Congress.
Obi formally joined the ADC on January 1, 2026, with Atiku welcoming him and describing the move as a major step in opposition coalition-building against President Bola Tinubu.
However, the alliance later collapsed amid internal disagreements and legal disputes within the party. Obi subsequently left the ADC alongside Rabiu Kwankwaso to join the Nigeria Democratic Congress, insisting that the country needed an end to what he described as litigation-driven politics.