Call Your Supporters to Order – Obi’s Ally, Aisha Yesufu Tells Atiku

Aisha Yesufu, a supporter of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi, has asked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to call his supporters to order over what she described as attacks on Obi’s supporters ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Yesufu made the appeal in a post on X on Tuesday evening.

The activist accused supporters of Atiku of going on a “rampage” on social media and attacking supporters of Obi.

She said she had personally become one of the targets of the attacks but expected better conduct because she and Atiku had previously worked together in the same political party.

“An appeal to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar @atiku to call his supporters to order,” Yesufu wrote.

“They have been on rampage on social media attacking supporters of Mr Peter Obi. I have been one of their targets.”

Yesufu said she expected political decency and sportsmanship to prevail among supporters of the opposition figures, arguing that attention should instead be focused on defeating the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

“Having once worked together in the same party, I thought decency would prevail and sportsmanship would mean let the swords be sheathed and let the focus be on the enemy that Nigeria has which is APC and Tinubu. And may the best candidate win!” she added.

Yesufu accused the supporters attacking Obi’s camp of creating a distraction that would not benefit their political cause.

“Their current tantrum is a distraction that serves no one and shows them up as lacking the capacity to convince anyone about their candidate so would rather be spoilers and take others down,” she said.

“Hausa people have a proverb: shuru shuru ba tsoro bane ba gudun maganane,” Yesufu added.

“Also ramuwar gayya tafi ta gayya zafi!”

Yesufu warned that if her opponents chose to escalate the confrontation, her camp would be prepared to respond while continuing with its political activities.

“In the event that they want the swords drawn, well we have capacity to multi task effectively!” she added.

TIMESNG reported yesterday that there has been claims of disagreements and controversies surrounding Yesufu’s expected role in Obi’s 2027 presidential campaign.

Obi, who was the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, recently moved from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to the NDC and emerged as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election. Yesufu who has yet to stop following after Obi also moved with the former governor to the NDC from the ADC.

She subsequently sought the NDC ticket to contest the Federal Capital Territory senatorial seat but failed to secure the ticket. Reports at the time said Yesufu encouraged her supporters to remain focused on the wider objective of the 2027 presidential election.

Yesufu has also explained that her involvement in Obi’s 2027 campaign would be different from her highly visible role during the 2023 presidential election.

She said she would not be travelling extensively with Obi as she did during the previous campaign, explaining that she would focus more on grassroots mobilisation and protecting votes from the polling units through the collation process.

“There are so many other things that I am doing. I am going to be doing so you might not get out as much as possible to ensure that I’m doing this,” she said.

Her proposed approach represents a shift from the nationwide campaign tours that made her one of the prominent figures around Obi during the 2023 presidential election.

Her relationship with the NDC leadership has, however, had moments of disagreement.

In June, Yesufu criticised NDC national leader Seriake Dickson over comments he made during a television interview following the party’s primaries.

She accused Dickson of focusing excessively on himself instead of reassuring aspirants who were disappointed by the outcome of the primaries and projecting confidence in the party ahead of the 2027 election.

Dickson had also previously disclosed that he and Obi offered Yesufu a House of Representatives ticket, which she reportedly turned down.

As reported yesterday, a former member of the Obidient Movement, High Chief Lawrence Igbins Okoro, had alleged that Obi approached a senior figure in the NDC and proposed that Yesufu be made a signatory to the party’s campaign account.

“Peter Obi approached the Supreme Leader and asked for Aisha to be a signatory to the NDC campaign account. The Supreme Leader almost ate him raw and warned him never to repeat it,” Okoro wrote on X.

He further alleged that Yesufu had indicated that she would not take an active role in the campaign unless she was made a signatory to the account.

“Aisha said she wouldn’t be active in the campaign if she wasn’t a signatory,” he added.