Former Minister of Information and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Jerry Gana, has said that Peter Obi would defeat any northern candidate in the 2027 presidential election.
Professor Gana made this statement during an interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time show on Wednesday. He said Obi still has strong support across the country, especially in the North, and that if he joins the PDP, he would be stronger if he comes back and can win any northern candidate.
“The PDP is on the ground,” Gana said. “I’m a researcher, and I research opinions. In the northern states, Peter Obi under the PDP will defeat any candidate because our people are very fair-minded and just.”
Peter Obi was the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election. He had left the PDP in May 2022 to run under the Labour Party, after disagreements within the PDP.
Gana said the PDP is still trying to bring Obi back. “We are reaching out to Peter Obi,” he said. “Because I’m leading a search team, and there are many brilliant people — Peter may be good, but we have somebody better. So, we are searching.”
He admitted that the PDP made a mistake by not keeping Obi in the party before the 2023 elections. “We made a mistake in 2023,” he said. “If I were Atiku, I would say, ‘Peter, it is now your turn; I would give you a vice-president,’ but he didn’t.”
When asked about the internal problems facing the PDP, Gana said the issues are only among a few party elites in Abuja and do not reflect the general state of the party nationwide.
He reminded Nigerians that the PDP was built as a grassroots party in 1998 and had full control of the government after the 1999 elections. “When we said ‘power to the people,’ we meant it,” he said.
Gana added that the PDP is working hard to win back the trust of Nigerians and believes the party will come out stronger before the 2027 elections.