“Obi’ One-Term Promise Is A Strategy To Win The North” — Kenneth Okonkwo

Kenneth Okonkwo, a member of the opposition coalition, has said that former Anambra State governor Peter Obi’s pledge to serve only one term if elected president was a calculated political strategy to win the support of northern voters.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, Okonkwo explained that the idea of a one-term presidency was first introduced by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, after which Obi adopted it to strengthen his appeal in the North. According to him, Obi recognised that refusing to make such a promise would put him at a disadvantage in securing votes from the region.

“I was the one who propounded it as a theory, saying that any party that is serious about fighting an incumbent must have to say that whoever is going to contest should have to do one term so that no side will feel cheated,” Okonkwo said. “If you are a southerner and you don’t agree to one term, northerners will think you want to hold power for another eight years. If you are a northerner and you don’t agree, southerners will feel shortchanged.”

He argued that Obi’s promise was not about cutting short a potential two-term presidency but about reassuring Nigerians that power rotation between the North and South would be preserved. “It’s purely a political strategy to say, ‘Look, I’m not going to shortchange you. If I am elected, I will just do four years to complete the eight years of the South,’” he said.

Okonkwo maintained that for any opposition party to stand a chance of defeating an incumbent, its presidential candidate must commit to serving only one term to balance regional interests and prevent distrust between the country’s two main political blocs.