A Southeast support group backing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid has resolved to seek the intervention of prominent Igbo leaders in an effort to persuade former Anambra State Governor and 2027 presidential candidate Peter Obi to withdraw from the presidential race and support Tinubu.
The Southeast chapter of the Renewed Hope for Greater Nigeria (RHGN) disclosed the plan after a meeting in Owerri focused on strategies to secure support for Tinubu across the five states of the Southeast.
The group’s Southeast leader, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, said the organisation intends to approach prominent Igbo leaders, including the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and elder statesmen such as Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.
According to Ngoforo, the proposed intervention would be aimed at persuading Obi to reconsider his presidential ambition in favour of what the group described as the broader political and strategic interests of the Southeast.
The group said it wants the prominent leaders to lead a delegation to Obi and appeal to him to support Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Ngoforo stressed that the proposed intervention was not intended to diminish Obi’s political stature but to encourage him to consider what the group believes would be the long-term interests of the Southeast.
Obi remains one of the major opposition figures preparing for the 2027 presidential election and is expected to contest under the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
The development highlights the growing political competition in the Southeast ahead of the 2027 election, with both the ruling party and opposition groups seeking to consolidate support in a region where Obi maintains a significant political following.
The RHGN said its broader objective is to secure support for Tinubu across polling units in the five Southeast states.
The proposed engagement with Igbo leaders is therefore part of the group’s wider political mobilisation strategy ahead of the election.