"Wine Importer, Not Economic Guru!" — Shettima Torches Peter Obi at Ondo Rally, Says Cheap South African Wine Can't Buy Economic Credentials

Hillary Michael · Politics · Nov 11, 2026

Vice President Kashim Shettima has detonated the political attack line of the 2027 cycle, telling a roaring APC crowd in Ondo that Peter Obi’s business record—importing cheap South African wine—does not make him an economics expert.

The All Progressives Congress presidential campaign rally in Ondo State on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, was already charged when Vice President Kashim Shettima took the microphone and aimed directly at the Nigeria Democratic Congress candidate. “The ability to import cheap South African wines doesn’t make one a guru in economics,” Shettima declared, drawing cheers from the crowd. It was a line designed to travel—and it did, igniting social media within minutes.

But Shettima did not stop at the wine. He painted Obi as a man whose television performances and statistics have outpaced his actual record. “Peter Obi’s performance as governor of Anambra State was at best mediocre,” he said, urging Nigerians to judge candidates by achievements rather than “sweet talk and statistics”. The Vice President then turned to the Flamingos controversy, accusing Obi of “clout chasing” and breaching protocol in his attempt to welcome the Under-17 women’s team at Abuja airport after their World Cup triumph in Morocco. “It’s cheap to vie for the presidency of Nigeria, especially for those like my big friend Peter Obi,” Shettima said.

The rally speech also weaponised Obi’s own biography. Shettima challenged him to name the Anambra governors—past or present—who support his presidential bid, listing Chris Ngige, Willie Obiano, and Charles Soludo, and answering each question with a flat “No”. He then delivered the line that may sting most: “Peter Obi calls Lagos home and not Ekwulobia, so that goes to show that he is benefiting from the quality of leadership President Bola Ahmed Tinubu provided in Lagos”. Tinubu, Shettima argued, turned Lagos from a struggling state into Africa’s economic capital, with good roads, strong revenue, and massive investment.

The wine attack is not new to the APC playbook. In July 2026, former Edo governor Adams Oshiomhole claimed he once walked into one of Obi’s stores to buy red wine and was told Obi was the sole importer of a particular South African brand—a detail the APC has since recycled as a shorthand for what it calls Obi’s limited commercial horizons. Shettima’s Ondo performance has now elevated that talking point to the centre of the 2027 campaign, framing the contest as a choice between Tinubu’s “record” and Obi’s “rhetoric.”

For Obi’s camp, the response is likely to follow the pattern of recent weeks: dismiss Shettima’s attacks as the nervous energy of a ruling party that sees the NDC’s crowds and cannot explain them. But in Ondo, with the crowd roaring and the cameras rolling, Shettima made one thing clear—the APC intends to fight the 2027 election on the terrain of biography, not statistics. And in that fight, cheap South African wine is now a campaign weapon.