EXCLUSIVE: ‘He’s wasting his time’ – Former Peter Obi associate exposes why he’ll never rule Nigeria

Peter Obi’s political journey teeters on the edge of a stormy precipice, where the winds of discord in the Labour Party (LP) threaten to sweep him into uncertainty. The foundation that once carried his presidential dreams in 2023 now wobbles beneath the weight of internal turmoil. Amidst the tremors shaking the party, Engineer Isaac David Balami, a steadfast ex-ally and former Deputy Campaign Manager for the Obi/Datti ticket, peeled back the curtain in an exclusive interview with Pulse Nigeria’s Segun Adeyemi.  He unveiled the reasons behind his departure from the Labour Party with unfiltered candour, painting a portrait of shifting allegiances and untold truths. Was there a fallout between you and Obi? No, no, nothing. We didn’t fight. I just saw that it’s not going to work. I’ve had first, second, third, and fourth meetings. Some meetings four hours, three hours, and two hours meeting. Whether it is in his house or anywhere. Or in London. Some of the meetings were even posted online that the meeting wouldn’t hold. And it was clear. And we, the middle-belters, came out in our numbers. How did I even come up to the campaign in the first place? The middle-belt elders called me. I was in Dubai to set up a university. Interesting. I was ready to set up a university. I got the classroom ready, everything ready. And they told me that there was a national call. And I returned because the former administration (Buhari government) hurt me. For eight years, I served with everything. It’s not even about money. When I calculated, leaving APC then, I’ve lost over 17 to 20 million US dollars. So what are you saying? I left because we wanted a change. I left because everybody wanted something new. Because of what the Buhari administration did, nobody was happy with it. Even people within the APC were not happy with it. So for me, I had to change. Because if I was in the Labour Party, and the things that we were preaching, isn’t what we were doing. At some point, the Labour Party became even worse than the PDP and the APC. Then why are we wasting our time? One of the major reasons why I left APC was because of my people in the middle belt. Everybody knows that I advocate for my people. Because we are, in quote, a minority, but in numbers, we are not. You’re looking at about 200 ethnic nationalities. Only one country in the whole world has the number of, or has the depth and the diversity of, the Middle Belt people. We are in between the South, and we are in between the core North. Up to Borno South, in fact the president of the Middle Belt is from Borno South, Chibok man. Because we are not Hausa-Fulanis. But you see, the whole idea is that I saw equity in this administration. Do you know that as I speak to you now, I can count 40 federal government appointments from Chief of Defense Staff from Southern Kaduna to SGF, Benue State, to DGs, MDs, ES, and head of agencies, whatever it is, that for the first time in the last 25 years, you see a minority who is not linked to a big family becoming this, becoming that? So that alone is okay. As I speak to you now, our people, for the first time, have finished harvesting their crops around October and November, and they’ve now gone back to irrigation farming. In the last 10 years, I haven’t seen that happening to our people in the Middle Belt. There’s a drastic improvement in security. Those are the things we were angry about the last government, and President Tinubu is doing it. I now saw him looking at the issue of state policing and local government autonomy. Come on. So, it was based on principle.  Some people say Peter Obi is portraying the attitude of negligence or the attributes of being weak, like ex-President Mohamed Buhari. It is not time to talk about Obi’s character or his personality. I won’t talk about it now, but I believe someday. What’s your take on his continuous quest to pursue power? I feel he’s wasting his time and people’s time because there are variables. There are things to do. I do not see those things being done. I’m not saying go and kill or go and rig, no. As little as an agent, we couldn’t get an agent and pay the agent. You need a structure. God will not come from heaven and give you structure. PDP now, they will say, sometimes a former VP Atiku is in Dubai. I don’t see them around now building structure, aside from media talk. Then they’ll just show up six months, or nine months to elections, and say they’ve been rigged out. I think people should do this politics differently. So for me, I’m tired of wasting my time. As a youth leader from Maiduguri, Borno State, from the days of Mala Kachalla, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, I have been active in politics as a young boy till today. So, even though I’m still young, I have seen a lot. I have seen a lot of this in politics. So, for me, I think I know enough to know where there’s no headway. So, the APC that I’m back to now, my prayer is that God gives me the wisdom to contribute to the benefit of my people and Nigeria at large. And if that happens, I will be satisfied. People will criticise. I have found out that everybody must talk. I followed you during the build-up to the 2023 elections and the elections, and I noticed your advocacy for young person inclusion in government and your party at the time; the Labour Party was one of those championing that cause and all of a sudden, you left the party. What happened? If I should speak about it, it would be scandalous, and I don’t want to do politics of bitterness. That is why I won’t say a word against Peter or Datti. And it’s not because I don’t have things to say; I’m not just brought up that way. In our culture, as a northerner, I’m not meant to insult my former principals, and I still respect them. But I will tell you things that are available on the internet, till today, till I left the Labour Party, after we lost the election, normally you call your team together. We’ve lost election. We’ll converge in 2027. But before then, let’s do this, let’s do this. What went wrong? Let’s do a SWOT analysis. There was nothing like that. The party was struggling, even when people like Abure (Julius) were willing to support the flag bearer in taking over the party. We’ve had meetings. Let’s take over this party and build it. And everybody was passionate about it. Okay, we’ve lost election, no problem. Six million votes, first trial, nobody has done that in Africa. So let us go back, but till I left, no single meeting was called. I’m like, are we deceiving people or what? Why are we wasting people’s time? Talking about criticism, what’s your concern about people questioning your political ideology due to your switch from APC to Labour? My brother!! Atiku himself has switched from party to party. Obi himself has left APGA, which he swore he would never leave. He went to PDP, came back to Labour, and now he’s talking about the possibility of whatever it is. So, for me, the question is the moral and the principle behind it. If today, APC offered me money and I left Peter Obi, then my conscience would judge me. But today, if anybody in APC has given me money, let the person come and say it. I did a press conference before I left APC. I did a press conference when I left the Labour Party. The content is there on the internet. And let anybody read it and come and challenge me on it.