Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has announced his departure from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), citing worsening internal crises within the party and broader national challenges.
In a statement shared on Sunday on X, Obi said his decision followed deep personal reflection and “silent pains” he had been carrying while navigating Nigeria’s political environment to see how Nigeria can be the greatest good for the greatest number.
He described the country’s system as increasingly toxic, saying it had become marked by intimidation, insecurity, suspicion, and discouragement, which he argued often undermines sincere public service.
Obi said: “We now live in an environment that has become increasingly toxic, where the system that should protect and create opportunities often works against the people.
“Some who publicly identify with you privately distance themselves or join in unfair criticism,” he stated, adding that humility is often misinterpreted as weakness in Nigeria’s political culture.
“Let me state clearly: my decision to leave the ADC is not because our highly respected Chairman, Senator David Mark, treated me badly, nor because my leader and elder brother, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, or any other respected leaders did anything personally wrong to me. I will continue to respect them.
“However, the same Nigerian state and its agents that created unnecessary crises and hostility within the Labour Party that forced me to leave now appear to be finding their way into the ADC, with endless court cases, internal battles, suspicion, and division, instead of focusing on deeper national problems and playing politics built more on control and exclusion than on service and nation-building,” he said.
“I am not desperate to be President, Vice President or Senate President. I am desperate to see a Nigeria where people can live in dignity, without hunger, fear, or displacement.
“A new Nigeria is possible.”