Obi Chants Drown Out Tinubu’s Campaign as Kalu faces Abia Crowd
Crowd chants of Peter Obi repeatedly interrupted Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, as he campaigned for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in Aba, Abia State, on Saturday.
Kalu, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, had urged residents to support Tinubu for a second term, describing him as the best presidential candidate.
He told the gathering that the South-East had much to gain from Tinubu’s administration.
“President Tinubu has remembered us. He has remembered the South-East. He has remembered Bende. The only way to say thank you is to vote him for a second time,” Kalu said.
But the crowd responded with repeated chants of “Obi! Obi! Obi!”, referring to Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Kalu switched to the Igbo language in an apparent attempt to calm the gathering, but the chants continued.
The drama intensified when a woman suspected to be an Obi supporter seized the microphone and shouted, “Kererenke!”
The crowd responded enthusiastically with “Obi!”
An organiser quickly retrieved the microphone from the woman and asked her to leave the podium.
Kalu subsequently tried to regain the crowd’s attention by singing “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand”, a popular anthem associated with Tinubu.
However, the crowd continued chanting Obi’s name.
In another attempt to win them over, Kalu asked: “You don’t want this university they want to build for you?”
He later joked: “These people are not Item people.”
The incident highlighted the challenge facing the APC in its efforts to strengthen support for Tinubu in the South-East ahead of the 2027 presidential election.