According to people who spoke with the publication, the party is still having trouble making a big splash in the area, which might hinder its attempts to gain support before the 2027 general election.
Stakeholders in the matter insisted that the "majority of northerners" were still evaluating the NDC's leadership, messaging, and political trajectory and had not connected with it.
Obi and his running mate Rabiu Kwankwaso were portrayed as politicians whose interests did not line with the region's, according to the article, and several northern political personalities had started to discourage their supporters from supporting the party.
Many in the north of the country are becoming increasingly cynical about the party because of these stories, say analysts.
Zaid Ayuba, president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Council, said that many northerners' perceptions of Obi were the main reason the party was not well-received there.
While addressing the matter, Ayuba stated that many in the area still did not trust the former governor of Anambra State and were thus hesitant to back a political program linked to him.
Ayuba also cast doubt on Kwankwaso's capacity to rally significant northern support for the NDC ticket, playing down Kwankwaso's political prominence.
Moreover, he asserted that certain northern voters remained suspicious and resistant due to Obi's "open support for the Indigenous People of Biafra," which he claimed had become a significant political liability.
Despite the party's leaders' attempts to broaden their political influence and garner national support in anticipation of the next presidential election, Ayuba claims that these misconceptions have prevented the party from gaining momentum in the region.
The North knows Obi and Kwankwaso as well as Tinubu and Atiku, he added. Politics, though, is not the same as winning.
No one in the North thinks Obi and Kwankwaso will be elected in 2027 because of how they are received. Actually, they are completely unable to match that.
Prior to his announcement in 2023, Obi's candidature was dogged by a stigma. There are two reasons why the Northerners will never accept him.
First, he has made it clear that he is sympathetic to the IPOB cause. In multiple interviews, Obi voiced his disapproval of the Supreme Court's decision to ban IPOB and label it a terrorist organization.
Claiming that such depictions were unjust and incorrect, Ayuba rebuffed claims that northerners were tolerant of terrorism.
He insisted that no sane northerner or authoritative figure had ever backed Boko Haram commanders like Muhammad Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau.
A compelling explanation of Peter Obi's position on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was required, he said, before the North would support his presidential campaign. He said that the issue's lingering stigma was a big reason why northern people weren't accepting of Obi.
But Ayuba maintained that his opinions had nothing to do with race, religion, or geography. He insisted that winning elections should not depend on a person's ethnicity or tribal affiliations alone and that this was an issue of justice.
He went on to say that many people in the north were starting to suspect that Obi had something to hide, and that the 2023 election had become more of a religious battle.
He went on to say that this was a political reality: no amount of lobbying from Rabiu Kwankwaso or anybody else could win over Northern Nigerian supporters to Obi's side.
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