Some pundits believe he did, and fear that it’s a foreboding of the insubordination that looms should the Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) ticket clinch the 2027 presidential election.

To them, hubris and ambition are inevitable when you have someone who has virtually seen it all in politics as your vice presidential candidate. Kwankwaso has been a Reps member, senator, minister, two-term governor, and a presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Nigerian politicians are now moving away from gentleman agreements into something more tangible - a signed accord. Before now, they weren’t putting pen to paper to bound themselves by pledges like the rotation of power between the north and the south, their word was their bond.

However, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) is changing all of that, not just with their initiative of having aspirants vying for the party’s tickets to swear not to jump ship (defection) after winning the general election.

The party’s vice presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has now disclosed that the NDC standard bearer, Peter Obi signed an agreement to serve for only a single term of four years if he wins next year’s presidential poll.

Featuring on Channels TV Politics Today programme, Kwankwaso disclosed that the agreement signed by Obi stipulates that the presidency will return to Northern Nigeria in 2031 upon the completion of an Obi-led administration’s four-year tenure.

“We have agreed to formalise it in writing,” Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, stated, making it clear that, “We have executed one document for the party and another between the two of us.”

This disclosure comes across as an overreach and unnecessary since Obi has repeatedly stated that he will only be serving for a single four-year term so that power can return to the North in 2031. There must have been a reason he never disclosed signing agreements to the effect all the while he was saying this.

Kwankwaso was expected to show loyalty by protecting that reason. He was expected to have started practicing what Vice Presidents are known for - being present without being heard, although Obi had promised that the former Kano governor won’t be a spare tyre if they make it to Aso Villa.

So, it is an apparent insubordination for Kwankwaso to bring into the conversation what his principal has been silent on. Unless the outing was a deliberate strategy to convince northerners and get them to vote for the NDC presidential candidate in 2027.

This is more so as Northern political titans like Ali Modu Sheriff and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje have been peddling the claims that Obi doesn’t stand a chance in the north. Even Datti-Ahmed, who the former Anambra, governor ran with in 2023, insinuated his unpopularity up north by alleging that several northern politicians refused to pair with Obi in the last general election.

So, what do you think? Did Kwankwaso hurt or help Peter Obi by letting everyone know he has signed agreements to serve one term?