Peter Gregory Obi, Presidential Candidate For Labour Party, Was born On This Day in 1961

Peter Gregory Obi CON is a Nigerian businessman and politician who served as the governor of the state of Anambra from 2006 to 2014.

Biography of Peter Obi Gregory

Born in Onitsha in 1961, he graduated from the University of Nigeria in 1984. He subsequently entered the business and banking world, eventually holding several senior management positions in banks.

Pre-Political Career of Peter Gregory Obi

Peter Obi was a businessman before venturing into politics. According to Peter Gregory Obi, he began his life as a merchant, having been born into a merchant family before venturing into the corporate world.

He has held executive positions in some private institutions. Some of the companies he has served include: Next International Nigeria Ltd, President and Director of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Future View Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Ltd, Chams Nigeria Ltd, Data Corp Ltd and Card Center Ltd. is was the youngest president of Fidelity Bank Plc.

Political Career of Peter Gregory Obi

In the early 2000s, Obi was the president of Fidelity Bank before leaving office to enter politics.

He ran for governor in 2003 as a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, but his main opponent was illegally declared the winner.

After three years of legal battles, Obi was declared the winner in 2006 and took office in March 2006. He was then impeached in November before the impeachment was lifted and returned to office in February 2007.

Once again , Obi was removed when new elections were held in April 2007, but the judiciary stepped in again and ruled that he should be allowed to complete a full four-year term. In 2010 he won re-election for a second term.

Obi’s terms were characterized by improvements in state finances, education, and health care.

Also Read: Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s First Black President, Was born on This Day in 1918

After leaving office in 2014, Obi gained new status as a supporter of good governance and a national political figure after moving to the People’s Democratic Party in 2014.
In 2019, he was selected as a vice-presidential candidate in the ongoing presidential election alongside Atiku Abubakar, but lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

In May 2022, he became the LP presidential candidate in the next general election of 2023, after defecting from the PDP.