The presidency has asserted that the comment of former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over the life imprisonment handed to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, does not reflect courage but was made from a place of convenience.
Kanu was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment by the Federal High Court in Abuja after Justice James Omotosho found him guilty on all seven counts of terrorism and related offences.
In a statement via his 𝕏 handle on Saturday, Peter Obi stated that Kanu‘s conviction is coming at a time when Nigeria is facing severe economic hardship, insecurity, and the consequences of poor governance.
The former Governors of Anambra state said he had always maintained that Nnamdi Kanu should never have been arrested, stressing that he consistently argued for dialogue, constructive engagement, and inclusive governance as the path to lasting peace.
According to Peter Obi, Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest, detention, and now conviction represent a failure of leadership and a misunderstanding of the issues at stake.
Reacting, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Social Media, Olusegun Dada, in a post via 𝕏, said Peter Obi’s statement is a calculated attempt to politicise a national security issue and turn Nnamdi Kanu’s conviction into another opportunity for political posturing.
Dada pointed out that Peter Obi has never openly condemned the killings, beheadings, arson, kidnappings, and terror carried out by IPOB for years.
He wrote, “Mr Obi, your statement is not driven by justice or genuine concern for peace. It is a calculated attempt to politicize a national security issue and turn Nnamdi Kanu’s conviction into another opportunity for political posturing. What makes your intervention even more troubling are as follows; You have never openly condemned the killings, beheadings, arson, kidnappings, and terror carried out by IPOB and ESN. For years, you carefully avoided acknowledging the violence in the Southeast.
“You remained silent while innocent people were murdered. You said nothing when entire communities lived in fear. You had no comment when sit-at-home orders crippled economic life and cost lives. You consistently avoided the topic not until now, when the judgment offers you a chance to score political points. Even in this long statement, you still refused to mention a single victim of IPOB’s violence. Not one. Instead, you paint Kanu as the aggrieved party, while erasing the pain of those whose lives his rhetoric helped destroy. That silence is not neutrality.
“It is selective empathy and it exposes the hypocrisy in your take. To say Kanu “should never have been arrested” without acknowledging the bloodshed linked to his movement is not leadership. It is political calculation. Dragging Nigeria’s economic hardship into the discussion is a diversion tactic, an attempt to shift focus away from the carnage and present Kanu as a symbol rather than a man whose actions had real, deadly consequences.
“Dialogue and political solutions are meaningful only when there is accountability and remorse not when communities are still bleeding. Putting Nigeria first means standing with victims, not sanitizing the actions of an agitator because it serves a political narrative. Your take does not unite. It does not heal. It does not reflect courage. It reflects convenience, the convenience of speaking only when it benefits you, and staying silent when Nigerians were suffering and it is low even for you. Nigeria deserves leaders who tell the truth not those who remain quiet about violence for years and suddenly find their voice only when it suits them.”
