Nigeria: Ex-President Obasanjo Clashes With Osoba Over Alleged Claims of 2003 Elections Deceit

What the report says

AllAfrica, republishing a This Day report from Abeokuta, says former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has pushed back against claims by former Ogun State governor Olusegun Osoba that he misled Alliance for Democracy leaders during the political bargaining ahead of Nigeria’s 2003 general election. The report says Obasanjo responded in a July 23, 2026 letter titled as a rebuttal to Osoba’s account, which had appeared in The Legal Observer on July 20.

According to This Day, Obasanjo denied deceiving Yoruba political figures or AD leaders, saying his actions at the time were consultations aimed at strengthening the Peoples Democratic Party and promoting national cohesion. He reportedly described Osoba’s version as inaccurate and incomplete, and said his contacts with political leaders after leaving prison helped shape his decision to join the PDP before the 1999 presidential race.

The report says Obasanjo also revisited his relationship with Afenifere leader Abraham Adesanya, noting that he maintained respect for him despite being told Yoruba voters would not support his presidential bid. He defended his later outreach to the AD as part of an effort to form a wider national government, not as a sign of vulnerability.

Obasanjo further disputed Osoba’s description of the circumstances around the attempted impeachment of then House Speaker Ghali Na’Abba and rejected the suggestion that AD governors lost in 2003 because of presidential manipulation. The exchange matters because it reopens debate over the political alliances and grievances that shaped Nigeria’s transition-era party politics in the South-West and the PDP’s dominance after 1999.