Kenneth Okonkwo, a prominent member of an opposition coalition, has characterised former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi’s promise to serve a single term if elected president as a strategic move to secure votes from Nigeria’s northern region.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, Okonkwo suggested that Obi understood that failing to make this commitment would lead to a loss of northern support.
Okonkwo explained his theory that for any opposition party to defeat an incumbent, it must agree to a one-term presidency for its candidate.
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He argued this approach ensures that neither the North nor the South feels politically shortchanged.
“It was even Atiku Abubakar that first of all said he was going to do one term, then Peter Obi now keyed into it because he knows that if he, as a younger person, does not make that promise, he loses the entire North,” Okonkwo said.
He described the promise as a “purely a political strategy” to assure northern voters that a southern president would not seek a full eight-year term.
Okonkwo, a lawyer, claimed he was the first to propose this theory, stating that a single-term agreement prevents either a northern or a southern candidate from appearing to “offend the system” by seeking an extended stay in power.
The statement by Okonkwo comes after Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has made multiple pronouncements on the issue of presidential tenure.
In a July 2025 interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Obi insisted he did not need more than four years to deliver good governance.
“I don’t need a day more than four years. I will show the direction of good governance,” he stated.
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In a separate instance in August, Obi advocated for a single five-year term for the Nigerian presidency, citing South Korea’s model where the president is limited to one term.
He argued that this would compel the office holder to focus on their job within a limited time frame.
