AN X user, @MaziGomez_, has claimed that Peter Obi is the first Nigerian politician to received six million votes in a presidential election without the backing of a sitting governor from his party.
He posted the claim with a caption thus:
“What Peter Obi did in 2023 elections, no Nigerian politician living or dead has ever done it. 6 million votes (after deductions from INEC) without a sitting Governor.
I can boldly say that Obi is the greatest politician ever in the history of Nigeria. 2027 we go again.”
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The post has generated over 300,000 views, with over 900 reposts and 3,000 likes as of July 6, 2025.
CLAIM
Peter Obi is the first presidential candidate to get six million votes without having a sitting governor.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Peter Obi contested the 2023 Nigerian presidential election as the candidate of the Labour Party after leaving the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in May 2022. Before then, he had served as governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014.
Obi’s entry into the Labour Party reshaped the political landscape, as he quickly became the party’s standard-bearer and drew national attention as a third-force candidate in a race traditionally dominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP.
In the election held on February 25, 2023, Obi secured 6,101,533 votes, according to the official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He won in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Some of the states he won include Lagos, Anambra, Enugu, Delta, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Edo, and Plateau. His strongest performance was in the South-East region, where he recorded large margins.
Meanwhile, Obi wasn’t the first president to achieve the feat. In the 2011 Nigerian presidential election, former president Muhammadu Buhari contested under the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party he helped establish in 2009 after leaving the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
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This marked Buhari’s third attempt at the presidency, following his unsuccessful bids in 2003 and 2007. The CPC was relatively new at the time and had a limited national structure compared to the dominant parties like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
Buhari secured a total of 12,250,853 votes in the 2011 election, finishing second behind Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, who won with 22,616, 416 votes. Buhari performed strongly in the northern part of the country, particularly in states like Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi, where he maintained a loyal support base.
The CPC did not have any sitting governors during that election, making Buhari’s vote count significant considering the limited political machinery behind his campaign at the time.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Obi is the first presidential candidate to garner 6 million votes in Nigerian election is FALSE; former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, garnered 12 million votes in 2011 without a sitting governor.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
