Peter Obi Archives

March 21, 2023

Peter Obi seeks annulment of Tinubu’s victory like June 12

Labour Party (LP) candidate Mr. Peter Obi, is seeking the annulment of the victory of President-elect Bola Tinubu, just like it happened in 1993 in the election of MKO Abiola.

The annulment is one of the five grounds Obi filed in his petition to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25 February election.

In a report by Premium Times, Obi who came third in the election, wants Tinubu’s election nullified and a fresh election ordered.

The paper reported that Obi filed his petition to challenge the outcome of the poll at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja at about midnight on Tuesday.

He alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Mr Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.

He also alleged that Mr Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

He also alleged that the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law.

The Labour Party candidate, therefore, urged the court to either declare him the president-elect, in the belief that he scored the majority of the lawful votes during the election, or nullify the entire election and order a fresh election.

The petition contains a total of five prayers divided into two categories – two main prayers and three alternative prayers.

Mr Obi jointly filed the petition alongside his party, the Labour Party.

The co-petitioners sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Tinubu, Kashim Shettima (vice-president-elect) and their party, the APC, as the respondents.

Mr Obi’s legal team which filed the petition against the outcome of the election on Tuesday is led by Livy Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Mr Uzoukwu led Atiku’s legal team when the former vice president unsuccessfully challenged the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

March 17, 2023

Peter Obi wants to steal Bola Tinubu’s mandate

Peter Obi

PRESS RELEASE

Peter Obi should stop deceiving his supporters

The defeated Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi goes around inflaming passions, spreading lies as if he is still campaigning for the highest office in the land, weeks after the exercise was concluded and a winner announced.

We are worried about his recent media rounds on Arise TV and Channels TV, in which he made profoundly misleading, criminally false and inciting statements about the election that he lost woefully.

We call on the security agencies to caution him from further making incendiary remarks, especially after he claimed he is challenging the results of the election in the tribunal.

Asked on Arise TV about his loss, he derided the election, considered by many to be the best in our recent history. He described it recklessly as ‘probably the worst’, ‘wrong election’, ‘not God’s will’. In one moment, he likened the election to ‘robbery’.

He also fleetingly wore the toga of a political scientist redefining democracy, which the world knows as government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

According to Obi, “to win in democracy is to win the people. The declared winner, Bola Tinubu did not win- that is what we are challenging…’ Later, he clarified in his moments of sobriety, after leaving the studio, that what he wanted to challenge was the process of declaring the winner.

On Channels TV few days later, Obi made the ridiculous claim about ‘his stolen mandate’, echoing the position of his unthinking mob of supporters, who believe that he won the election, because some sponsored polls made the claim before the election.

We consider the claim by the former governor of Anambra as very fraudulent as he fell short of winning any mandate. He came third, not even second, losing by 2.6 million votes to President-elect Bola Tinubu, despite getting outrageously padded votes from his ethnic South East states.

From the false narrative Obi has been pushing, he is the one trying to steal Bola Tinubu’s mandate, by appealing unashamedly to tribal and religious sentiments and by resorting to his sickening penchant for lying boldfaced to snatch what does not belong to him.

We consider Obi’s TV statements as prejudicial to the case he has filed and contemptuous of the court. Only a desperate politician like Obi will embark on his course of action: seeking justice in court and simultaneously embarking on a mission of blackmailing and intimidating the judiciary.

He is trying to present himself before his case takes off in court as a helpless, cheated victim of the ‘system’, robbed of a mandate by INEC. He is trying to position himself as the candidate ‘who won the people’, who is loved by the people, going by his self-serving definition of democracy.

His antics, if he is able to sway the judges is to make them cancel the entire election, even without sufficient, substantial proof of malpractice. This will pave way for his dream alliance with the PDP, the second losing party, in a fresh election.

The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar spoke about his readiness to enter into such alliance in his post-poll press conference, as he accused Obi of taking his votes in the South South and South East.

We hope the men and women of the judiciary will not fall for Obi’s cheap tactics and really examine the cases before them on merit and on the basis of substantial evidence presented.

Let us remind Obi once again, he is welcome in the court,, where he is bound to lose woefully.

Finally we advise Mr. Obi to stop attacking the integrity of the election just because he did not win the majority votes and the constitutional spread in 24 states.

He should stop deceiving his gullible followers and raising unrealistic hopes about reclaiming the presidency from Asiwaju Tinubu.

We also advise the NBC to caution TV houses giving Obi the platform to de-legitimise a free and fair election, when he has taken his case to court.

Bayo Onanuga
Director, Media and Publicity
APC Presidential Campaign Council
March 16, 2023

March 3, 2023

2023 election a watershed with unprecedented outcomes, upsets: APC PCC

Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi

Speech of Mr. Dele Alake, Special adviser on media and communication of the APC PCC at a Press Conference in Abuja on 3 March 2023

Gentlemen of the press.

It has become necessary to address you again today to respond to both the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, following their separate press conferences which held yesterday.

We must thank the two of them for finally opting for the rule of law as against the initial belligerent posture as they continue their baseless journey of chasing after a mirage. Those who lay claim to democratic credentials are expected to be conscious of those inimitable minimum requirements of law and order even in the face of a perceived injustice. The initial knee-jerk and hothead call for anarchy by their proxies was ill-advised and would in no way serve any noble cause. It is good to know that reason has prevailed.

Let us say, unequivocally, that we welcome the decision of both the PDP and LP and also the NNPP candidates to test their claims, as ridiculous as they are, in the court of law as provided for by our constitution. This is without prejudice to the conciliatory efforts of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has reiterated in his post declaration speeches the need for all Nigerians, irrespective of whom we all voted for, to rally quickly together for the good of our country.

We must say, however, that listening to both Atiku and Obi yesterday left us in the APC family confounded. We understand that there has been an orchestrated campaign by the acolytes of PDP and LP in the media to discredit the Presidential election. What we did not expect is that the two presidential candidates and, indeed, their political parties, would shamefully re-echo the puerile and unimaginative arguments that are being canvassed by political illiterates and mischief-makers who are crying wolf on the social media.

As we all can see, these two otherwise experienced politicians are pinpointing lack of adherence to the guidelines as basis for discrediting the votes lawfully cast by Nigerians. We shall examine the so-called process that was purportedly breached by the electoral body and how it, in their wild imagination, undermined the credibility of the election.

The claim that INEC did not use the BVAS is false. Those who voted across Nigeria, including Atiku and Obi, were accredited by BVAS. Save for bad losers that these two people have proven to be, we should rather be celebrating the tremendous improvement the use of BVAS has brought to our electoral process.

The complaint over the electronic transmission of the result is not supported by law.
Section 38 of the Electoral Acct 2022 referred to by the PDP and LP has nothing to do with transmission of election results. Section 60, subsection 2 of the Act deals with transmission of results and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.

In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in anyway change the results that have been announced right after the counting in the presence of the parties’ agents and to the hearing of the voters. It is, therefore, nonsensical to insinuate that time variation in uploading results would cause a change in the figures.

The 2023 Presidential election is a watershed as it produced unprecedented outcomes and defied conventions. The deployment and use of BVAS is the only reason the elections produced these strange outcomes and upsets in many cases. The loss of Katsina and Lagos to PDP and LP respectively were contrary to expectations.

BVAS brought the intended credibility to voters’ accreditation such that many governors and well-established politicians lost elections in what should be safe bet areas. The era of ghost-voting and stuffing of ballot boxes is gone. As the experience in the last governorship election in Osun State has shown, over-voting would automatically lead to outright cancellation of the results of the polling units based on the provision of the new Electoral Act. The same PDP that is trying to pull the wool across the face of Nigerians was the culprit in the Osun State governorship election. Did they try to do it this time and it failed? Or did they do it in the areas they unexpectedly won? Did they have a grand plan to hack the INEC server if results were uploaded in real time? Nigerians will soon find out.

Contrary to the false claims of Atiku and Obi, the reasons for losing the elections were foretold. Besides the delusional expectations created during the campaigns to hoodwink the public, most PDP leaders knew their party had been decimated by Mr. Peter Obi. The South East and South South that were traditional strongholds of PDP constituted the core support base for the Labour Party. PDP went into this election without its limbs and lied to itself that it could win the race. It is worthy of note that Atiku also accepted this fact during his press conference yesterday, when he lamented that his party’s votes in the South East and South South regions were carted away by the LP.

The PDP also found itself in No.3 in Kano, with a former member, Kwankwaso running away with over 900,000 votes.

How far could the PDP have gone with what was left of it? Not so far as the results of the elections have shown. The members of G5 were key leaders of the party who had substantial political influence. They also went away with their own pound of flesh, leaving a crippled PDP to scavenge for crumbs of votes.

For Obi, he would go down as Nigeria’s most dangerous and divisive politician. He elevated his well-known clannish mentality to a most unfortunate height by openly anchoring his campaign on religion and ethnicity. He presented himself as a poster boy for and a champion of our country’s fault lines. He took advantage of our youths whose expectations are fast paced, who are uninterested in excuses, and who were in search of a hero. He pumped up their sentiments and rode on their emotions while grandstanding as a saviour. It was a false pretence. Obi’s credentials are eternally stained as a former governor with no remarkable legacy.

Not a few of our youths thought Peter Obi looked like the leader they wanted and many of them could not tolerate any form of scrutiny of their newfound hero. They chose wilfully to canonise him while insisting no one should ask questions. The combination of the disgruntled youths, the ethnic champions, and commercial clerics were the reason Obi thought he could win a presidential election in Nigeria. Such illogic is not strange to the Labour Party.

If Labour Party could not fill up its quota for polling booth agents with a shortfall of over 40, 000, how did it intend to compete with political parties like APC and PDP? It would be interesting to see what evidence of rigging Labour Party will present before the court when the party could not appoint agents to monitor nearly a quarter of the venues of election.

As we look forward to an encounter with both the PDP and LP at the court, we want to enjoin the two of them to pursue their grievances with decorum. They should encourage their members, supporters, and ethnic and religious consultants to follow the path of the rule of law.

We note that both Atiku and Obi are claiming victory, wouldn’t it make sense for them to agree who the actual winner is before challenging APC in court?

Meanwhile, the APC train has left the station as we continue our effort to make Nigeria better for all Nigerians.

Thank you all for listening.

March 2, 2023

We will meet Peter Obi in court

Peter Obi

PRESS STATEMENT

WE WILL MEET MR. PETER OBI IN COURT

We watched with dismay today’s press conference addressed by the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi where he made very weird and wild claims about the outcome of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections, an election in which he emerged a second runner up, according to the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

We welcome the decision of Mr. Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidences of electoral frauds he will present before the tribunal as alleged.

Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take. We salute the decision. It is surely better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.

Before Mr. Obi goes to court, we consider it necessary to challenge some specific claims in his press address.

Contrary to his statement, it is not true that the election held 25 February was not free and fair.

The 2023 election is one of the most transparent and peaceful elections in the history of Nigeria. It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Mr. Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to pre-election forecast.

That Labour Party and Mr. Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos State, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta and Edo where there are sitting governors of either the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party. Those governors have entrenched political machinery. That Obi won attests to the credibility of the election process. In those states, most of the sitting governors contested election to go to the Senate and lost to little known candidates of Labour Party.

The Labour Party also swept the entire five South East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.

We believe that the Labour Party Presidential Candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself to public ridicule by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.

We need us to forewarn Mr. Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90% of votes in his region of South East while other parties got almost nothing. We have evidence of voters suppression, intimidation and harassment in South East especially of those who came out to vote for our party.

Also when Mr. Obi gets to court, he will have to convince the court with his allegation of rigging in over 40,000 polling units across the country especially in North West and North East where his party had no party agents and did not sign result sheets as required by law. It is our assumption that Labour Party will enlist PDP agents to prove its fraud claims since it is an affiliate of PDP.

We want to state again for the umpteenth time that Mr. Obi didn’t win the presidential election and could not have won under any circumstances. This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society.

Mr. Obi anchored his presidential campaign on the failed strategy of ethnicity and religion, the divisive and dangerous politics that has hobbled the progress of our country for decades.

Nigerians simply rejected an ethnic and religious bigot through their ballots.

Mr. Obi all through his campaign presented himself as the candidate of the Christians and the Church, who wanted to help ‘take back their country” from the Nigerian Muslims.

His campaign also ran on the engine of ethnicity, inflaming strong Igbo sentiments. He also sought to cash in on the supposed youth discontent in Nigeria, as fuelled by the ENDSARS protest in 2020.

While Labour Party positioned its candidate as the harvester of the youth votes, its planners forgot that Nigeria does not have a homogeneous and monolithic youth population that can deliver bloc vote to any candidate.

All the major parties that contested the election also have strong youth appeal and supporters.

The lesson in Mr. Obi’s defeat in the election is that no politician in Nigeria can win a presidential race by being a sectional and an anointed candidate of any religion.

God created our country in a way to make it impossible for any part of the country to exist without the other. The framers of our constitution also worked to bind our country together with provisions that will make it impossible for a section of the country and any religion to have political domination over the other.

What this means is that any aspiring politician for the presidency of Nigeria must have a Pan Nigeria appeal and strong support and must be embraced by adherents of other religions.

Mr. Obi and his party knew why they failed. They knew they had no path to victory with their negative and dangerous campaign.

We owe Labour Party and Peter Obi the blunt truth: They failed in the election. No amount of red-herring and misinformation about the election and the outcome can obliterate this reality.

The President-Elect who was the candidate of our party won a Pan Nigeria mandate in a free, fair and credible election.

He is ready and prepared to assume office so he can serve the people of our country with sincerity and honour.

Bayo Onanuga
Director, Media & Publicity
APC Presidential Campaign Council
March 3, 2023

February 28, 2023

Atiku, Peter Obi should concede defeat now: APC PCC

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi

TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY MR. DELE ALAKE, SPECIAL ADVISER, MEDIA, PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS OF ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COUNCIL ON FEBRUARY 28, 2023 IN ABUJA

Gentlemen of the press, we welcome you again this afternoon to another session over some developments after our briefing yesterday.

You must have all read the statement yesterday evening by former President Olusegun Obasanjo where he was literally calling for the cancellation of the last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

His call was anchored on the unsubstantiated claims, rumours and allegations of fraud by opposition parties led by Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, who having seen that they have lost the election would rather want our hard won democracy to be truncated on the altar of their lies.

You must also be aware of the gang up by the PDP and Labour Party, whose agents walked out of the National Collation Centre in Abuja on Monday. Today, they continued their conspiracy to truncate our 24 year democratic journey by raising unfounded allegations against INEC, casting aspersions on the whole electoral process, forgetting the process had handed them unexpected victories in some states.

We have always suspected that Labour Party and PDP are the same, only divided by individual inordinate ambition. We want to remind them that election is a process like pregnancy. Like a pregnancy that has reached full term, it cannot be aborted. We are not in 1993 when June 12 was aborted by similar forces. It is too late to do so.

The APC-PCC wants to say emphatically that former President Obasanjo has no moral right to meddle in this election let alone calling for its cancellation because he is an interested party having publicly, on January 1 this year, endorsed the candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.

Although we stand by our position as stated yesterday not to jump the protocol governing the announcement of the election results and allow Independent National Electoral Commission to perform its constitutional duty, we want to tell the gathering anti-democratic forces that we have the strength, the determination and the will to protect and defend this process and the soon-to-be-formally announced mandate freely given to our party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.

We are very well aware of the plan of the PDP and their Labour Party collaborators to heighten tension in the country and create general state of fear through their sponsored Television and Radio surrogates who continue to push false narratives about the general conduct of the election. We are also aware of the coordinated assault aimed at discrediting the whole electoral process and the integrity of INEC by their so-called paid and partisan agents who wear the toga of Election Observers.

We consider Obasanjo’s failed attempt to scuttle the process through his unsolicited advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election as part of the grand orchestration of many evil plots to truncate democracy in Nigeria.

Gentlemen of the press, it is our submission that the election conducted nationwide on Saturday was credible and transparent.

Our position has been attested to by the international observers such as the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, European Union and African Union observer missions who adjudged the election as peaceful, free and fair whilst they identified areas of logistical improvements INEC should take into consideration in future elections.

As you are well aware, the election was replete with drama. We saw the APC presidential candidate, party chairman and PCC director-general, losing their home states to Labour Party. Our DG also lost his bid to the Senate.

We have also seen how Governor Samuel Ortom, a Labour Party backer lost his state of Benue to the APC. He also lost his bid to the Senate to the APC candidate. The Benue APC Tsunami was triggered by our popular governorship candidate, Father Hyacinth Alia and the party leader, George Akume. In Taraba, we have also witnessed how Governor Darius Ishaku lost his senatorial election.

With all these hills and valleys and dramas that characterized the election, how can anyone claim the election was rigged or not transparent.

We need to enjoin politicians to imbibe the democratic spirit. Elections are meant to test a candidate’s acceptance or popularity. In a National election, you must seek acceptance nationally. Ethnic champions can’t go far as democracy is a game of numbers. Wherever a candidate has the critical numbers, he wins. Wherever he is deficient, he loses. We have seen all these scenarios at play in the weekend election.

We call on INEC to speed up the announcement of the result to quickly diffuse the current atmosphere of anxiety in the country, so that Nigerians can move on from this election circle with a greater hope of a prosperity which our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised them during the electioneering campaign.

We also call on Nigerians and our supporters across the country to be peaceful, excercise more patience and not be provoked by the antics of the agents of darkness lurking around.

Finally, we call on Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat. This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state. In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulated him in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.

We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi call Tinubu now.

Thank you all.

February 23, 2023

Breaking: Peter Obi deserted by Labour Party state chairmen

Labour Party, Peter Obi

State chairmen of the Labour Party (LP) have declared that the presidential candidate of the party Peter Obi cannot win on Saturday, as they parted ways.

This, they said, is because he has neglected the 36 State chairmen in the running of campaign and mobilisation activities.

Alleging neglect by Obi, they said the former Anambra Governor has failed to recognise the important role of the 36 state chapters’ leadership but choose to work with cronies and support groups.

The Gombe State LP chairman and co-ordinating chairman for the 36 States, Sani Abdulsalam, told reporters in Abuja that such tendencies could affect the party’s performance at the polls.

He was accompanied by the national vice chairman (North East), Mohammed Alkali and the Yobe State chairman, Ibrahim Bukar, amongst others.

Abdulsalam alleged that money meant for the mobilisation of poll agents was withheld by the national chairman, Julius Abure.

He hinted that monies expected to be channelled to polling unit agents through state chairmen or national officers have not been done, stressing the fundamental need for polling unit agents for winning elections.

While bemoaning the paucity of LP’s polling unit agents, among other things, he accused Obi of insensitivity and high-handedness.

Abdulsalam said: “I speak on behalf of 36 state Chairmen of our party in my capacity as the Coordinating Chairman.

“We have never been respected by the party leadership and also our presidential candidate has no respect for our party executives at state levels because Peter Obi deliberately mismanaged our goodwill with the imposition of his members and other support groups that decamped with him in May 2022 to our party.

“Of note, Wednesday, February 22, 2023, was the meeting we had with the National Chairman in the party head office where a discussion was held about the logistics support for state chapters and National officers towards effective Mobilisation of our members for the presidential and National Assembly election on Saturday, February 25, 2023

“To our surprise, the National Chairman said the Presidential candidate has no confidence in all the 36 state chapters’ leadership but would rather choose to work with their cronies and support group that came with him.

“The greatest shock from the National Chairman was that money for agents will not be sent to any State Chairman or National officers except those three NWC members including a woman and that all state Chairmen and 19 other members already picked by Mr Peter Obi himself will be given monies meant for party agents and an alert will be received by 10 pm tonight Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

“As of now, no alert has been received by any State Chairmen and information reaching us confirmed that money was paid based on ethnic and religious consideration because only persons of a particular ethnic group currently run the campaign of Mr Peter Obi in cohort with the National Chairman, has polluted the party.

“As members of the Labour Party National Executive and National Working Committee, it is our considered opinion and informed conclusion that Peter Obi cannot win this election since all party executives have been sidelined. He is not ready and is grossly ill-prepared for the Presidential race.”

Reported by The Nation

February 12, 2023

Peter Obi’s condemnable Alaba Market politicking

Alaba Market, Peter Obi

By PROF. YEMI OKE

*From Rumours to Manifestations*
It began like a rumour; unfound imaginative sentiments of his political rivals, but the manifestation proved his critics right. The style of ethnocentric politicking and manner of Obi’s campaign in Ibo-dominated Alaba market square during his recent Presidential campaign in Lagos has proven Peter Obi’s penchant for needlessly divisive, dangerous ethnocentric politicking which is both condemnable and undesirable at this point of our nationhood*.

Rationally, one might not be hasty to condemn or be too hard in criticising the presidential candidate of the Labour Party for his refusal to frontally and decisively condemn the activities of IPOB and other self-styled “Biafra Warlords” wreaking havoc and manifesting most heinous criminalities on the good people of South-East and elsewhere. But, it stands logic and commonsensical rationalities in the head why Peter Obi (a South-Easterner) entered Lagos, a South-West cosmopolitan and accommodating city of prosperity for all-irrespective of tribal or ethnic orientations, and opted to visit only his kinsmen and women in the Ibo-dominated Alaba market.

*The Makeba Dance*
Typical of a distasteful “makeba dance in the market square”, Peter Obi uttered words that would appear insensitive and insulting to the host Yoruba race. This is not to hype ethnicity but reality. I doubt it if a Yoruba or Fulani man or woman would display that level of rude effrontery in the South-West.

Lagos is for all. We all know that same would not apply to Fulani, Yoruba, Nupe and other ethnic traders in Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba and other markets in the South-East. As a High-Chief in Yorubaland, I wish to put on record that what Obi did is tantamount to insensitive act of counting the ‘nine-fingers’ with full consciousness of victim (A kii ti oju onika mesan ka’a!). This further reinforces and underscores the desire of Nigerians to vote a detribalised leader in the February 25, 2023 presidential election. Doing otherwise would be costly and risky for the continued existence and unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

*Peter Obi knew that an Oba exists in Lagos- Oba of Lagos, yet he opted to ignore him. Conventionally, the usual political and electioneering itinerary is for the visitor to first pay a courtesy visit to the ruler and ancestral owners of the land which the Oba, Obi or Emir of the town represents*.

Would Peter Obi have done same to the highly intellectual Obi of Onitsha? It is disgusting that Peter Obi preferred his Ibo kinsmen and ignored the Hausa community in Idi-Oro in Mushin. He did not visit Yaba, Surulere, Iyana-Ipaja or elsewhere to create an impression that his aspiration for Nigeria’s presidency and not tribal (Ibo) presidency. He should have known better.

*Would Tinubu, Atiku, Kwankwaso Have Done Same?*
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso visited Lagos, he did not indulge in the cossy enclaves of his ‘talakawa’ followers in Mushin and other “Sabo’ in Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan or elsewhere. Atiku Abubakar visited Lagos and, in his characteristic manner, he visited the Oba of Lagos and others without particularizing his visit to the Fulani elites or Hausa-Fulani communities in the markets in Mushin and other locations. Atiku went to Abeokuata and called on Alake of Egbaland, our revered king who made me “Bada-Baamofin of Egabland.

*Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who deployed policy and other positive administrative measures to make Alaba market, Aspanda market, and igbo-dominated Ladipo spare-parts market in Mushin centers of wealth would have acted differently. As Governor, Tinubu could have closed down the Alaba, Aspanda or Ladipo spare-parts and other Ibo-dominated markets. He did not. Rather, he appointed Ibos into his cabinets and other sensitive appointments. His successors, Fasola, Ambode and Sanwo-Olu have also continued the healthy and progressive dispositions to those Ibo-dominated enclaves in Lagos State.*

Those Ibo-markets have received Lagos State attentions in terms of development and infrastructure, and are now vital grounds for prosperity and wealth by traders from South-East, who largely dominate and reap fortunes and wealth. *Bola Tinubu or Atiku or Kwankwaso would not have played very cheap, debased and condemnable ethnocentric politics like Peter Obi.*

*Asiwaju Tinubu knows there are Yorubas in Anambra, Kano, Sokoto and elsewhere. He opted to demonstrate and amplify national unity and did not proceed to Yoruba neighborhoods in those locations to dance the distasteful “makeba dance in the market square” like Peter Obi did most insensitively.*

Nigerians, “Shine Your Eyes”
Indeed, we as Nigerians mush “shine our eyes”. It would be difficult for any right-thinking, ethnic-neutral Nigerian to view Peter Obi as a detribalised Nigerian. I don’t, and millions other also don’t either.

The February 25 presidential election will send a very strong signal that we are Nigerians and we chose to live as Nigerians irrespective of our ethnic and religious differences. Developed countries like Canada, US and the UK take pride in their multi-culturalism and multi-ethnicity. We should not allow any politician to use our natural ethnic settings to divide us. Our diversity is a matter of national assets.

We do not trust ethnocentric presidential aspirants. Kudos to the drafters of the portion of the Nigerian Constitution and Electoral Act that make it compulsory for candidates to score one-thirds in two-thirds of the States in Nigeria including Abuja. This makes it practically impossible for anyone to get elected on the basis of needlessly divisive and condemnable tribal sentiments and ethnocentric style of politicking.

Nigerians will decide, and we shall decide right.

*We love this country.*
*This GIANT called NIGERIA will rise, and never to fall again!*
—————
*PROF. YEMI OKE, PhD, FCArb, FCTI*
*(Bada-Baamofin of Egbaland)*
*(Lawyer, Scholar, Energy Consultant and Political Actor)*

February 12, 2023

February 10, 2023

Peter Obi and those Onitsha-market polls

Nextier Poll, Peter Obi

By Fredrick Nwabufo

Propaganda, lies, and chicanery have always been instruments of war. In World War 2, Germany actuated and deployed the most pervasive, yet incisive propaganda ever witnessed in history. For the Germans, the idea was to psychologically overwhelm their adversaries, and consequently, secure victory on terra firma. The most pernicious warfare is that of the mind.

Politics, ordinarily, should not be warfare. But in a system of constant collision of interests like ours; it is sadly so. The weapons of political warfare are both corporeal and subliminal. The battle is fought in the minds of the electorate long before Election Day.

The recent Nextier poll which arrogates dubious electoral advantage to Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, is an asymptote of political sorcery. The poll is essentially a subterfuge, a ruse, a gambit, an artifice; it is a serpentine machination through and through.

The Nextier 2023 presidential election survey like the ANAP Poll before it, is a deliberate fabrication in the pursuit of political gain. The poll seeks to achieve predetermined objectives – (1) to endorse Peter Obi as the people’s candidate; (2) to exaggerate Peter Obi’s electoral value; (3) to create a siege of choice and chaos should the outcome of presidential election reflect a different candidate; and (4) to prejudice the election with an impossible fait accompli.

Nextier said it used ‘’144 enumerators to poll 3,000 respondents in all states in Nigeria’’ to determine its projections. This is clearly defective and not extensive — as it leaves more room for error than stated by the pollster.

According to Nextier’s projections, survey respondents in all the southeast states; in four out of six states in the southwest; in six states in the south-south, and in two states in the north-central preferred Peter Obi as president of Nigeria. The poll also projected impressive performance for Peter Obi in the northwest and the northeast. This is ludicrous. The survey obviously discounted voting behaviour across the states, demographics, as well as sociological and ethnological influences among the electorate across the zones.

The Nextier Poll is not worth a breath of concern, really. It is sufficiently flawed in conception, and design. The preconceived agenda is obvious. Political propaganda through questionable polls. The poll is not different from the quotidian tallying of goods by Onitsha-market traders.

There have been open threats of violence by supporters of Peter Obi if he loses the election. These polls which mock reality, objectivity and common sense could be ammunition for what is to come if the election does not go in the way of the ‘’Obidients’’.

There should be a ceiling for propaganda. When electoral impossibilities are sold as definite outcomes by established pollsters, the risk is ominous. There is nothing dissuading the thought that ‘’Obidients’’, known to be choleric and unthinking, in their delusion of certain victory will not unleash themselves on the nation.

There are concerns that the country may experience another insurrection in the gravity of the #EndSARS violence over the outcome of the presidential election. It is dangerous giving hope where there is obviously no chance; it is foolhardy creating a dream that is unrealisable. It is unwise holding unto an illusion, believing it and living it. The only way out of this phantasm is the asylum.

As I wrote in a previous column, Peter Obi did not plan to run for president. If he did plan to run for president, he would not be freewheeling through endless tunnels of gaffes and inchoate ideas. But really, he did not plan to run for president. An accident happened.

Peter Obi’s presidential bid is a freak of politics; an idea contrived for performance and political quota. His bid is perhaps only relevant for regional affirmation and for intimation of anger by a section of the youth.

Obi’s bid was not out of compulsion to fix Nigeria or to make any change to the country; it was a just response to the scheming in the PDP. He was schemed out of the loop by a party notable for treachery. Peter Obi never planned, designed, or imagined running for president. His presidential bid is a hoax and a ploy to get back at those in the PDP who declared him a political liability.

Running for president takes intention; it takes years of planning; building a network of people and structures. It is not a happenstance or what you decide on in protest against the scheming in your party.

Peter Obi is not running for president to win, ‘’Obidients’’ must understand this; he only wants to make a trenchant statement, and perhaps build a following to secure political value-ship. If he was really running to win, he would have started forging alliances and building the necessary cross-zonal network years ago.

‘’Obidients’’ must give up chasing a will-o-the-wisp; they must become realistic and measure their expectations.

Fredrick Nwabufo; Nwabufo aka Mr OneNigeria is a media executive.

January 22, 2023

The Obidients and the Fallacious Politics of 2023

Peter Obi, Salihu Lukman

By Salihu Moh. Lukman

A close friend and comrade recently asked me if I am Obedient, suggesting that I am supporting Mr. Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party. To say the least, I was very dismayed that anyone could imagine I will support any candidate other than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I may excuse any person if he/she is meeting me for the first time. Having come a long way both as activist and learner of politics since my student days in the 1980s, our commitment to politics and the development of Nigeria was informed by a clear vision to build a society founded on equality and justice. Our politics of support or opposition to leaders normally take bearing from our assessment of commitment of individual leaders to issues of equality and justice, which is more a function of producing accountable leaders who will work to meet the expectations of citizens.

Somehow, our contemporary reality is that political choices are largely informed by sentiments often based on perceptions without any evidential objective indicator of probable commitment to deliver services and meet the expectations of citizens. It is more a case of blind expectations, which can only lead us to more frustrations and anger with our leaders. Partly because scholarship is very poor today in Nigeria, there are many so-called Obidient supporters who promote outright falsehood and politics hate against other candidates and their supporters. This is unfortunately self-defeatist.

As a member of APC, I want to campaign for all our candidates while at the same time respecting our opposition. People are free to make their choices and we should respect that. Once the element of respect is removed from politics of choices of candidates, then democracy risks being downgraded to the level of anarchy. The temptation to indulge in politics of disrespect could be linked to the apparent lack of confidence of winning the election. It is almost a case of if I lose it means the bad people have impose themselves again. Everything is reduced to a contest between the good and the bad. What makes any candidate good or bad, is left to some intuitive presentations by individuals who often reduced political contests to bullying conditions.

With reference to the so-called Obidient, as much as we respect their choice, we also must appeal to them to honestly recognise the shortcomings of Mr. Peter Obi as a politician and Labour Party (LP) as a political party. Recognising these shortcomings will be important in convincing Nigerians that they are engaging the contest also as a strategy to reform both the person of Mr. Peter Obi and the organisation of LP as a political party. In terms of the person of Mr. Peter Obi, so far, his characteristics is that of a typical Nigerian politician who is more of an election merchant presenting himself every four years for election, even if it means changing political party.

Being an election merchant connote obvious lack of commitment and discipline to be loyal to any political party. This partly explains why Mr. Obi moved from All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now LP between 2015 and now. What is the guarantee that his candidature of LP also bears a commitment to develop the LP and get it to overcome all its challenges. Noting that it is a public knowledge that LP has been embroiled in leadership crisis, how is Mr. Obi using his campaign to negotiate the resolution of LP crisis. From a distant point of view, Mr. Obi is in fact indifferent to the crisis facing LP.

Beyond being indifferent, Mr. Obi is clearly alien to any ideological standpoint that can bring him close to the working class, which is the primary constituency of LP. Some of us are privileged to have been intellectually and organically connected to that constituency. In fact, I am privileged to have managed the project which conceived and facilitated the initial negotiation between Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its partners, notably civil society, which produced the LP in 2003. Part of the reality facing LP had to do with the close shop mentality of labour leaders, which blocked the party from being open to other Nigerians outside the mainstream labour movement. This reality blew open in the face of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for instance when in 2007 after serving his eight years term as President of NLC and wanted to win the 2007 Governorship election in Edo State, he had to syndicate alliance with Action Congress (AC). Interestingly, once he wins the 2007 election, that was the end of the alliance as he moved to AC, while his LP membership became history.

Part of what must be recognised in all these debates is that the fallacious politics of 2023 is more about the disappointments of Nigerians with our leaders and the state of the nation. While it is important to recognise the legitimate disappointment of Nigerians with our leaders and the state of the nation, it will remain a fallacy to imagine that a simple choice of a typical election merchant can resolve Nigeria’s challenges. Not just Peter Obi, any other politician with the characteristics of changing political parties for the purpose of contesting elections, such a person is not what Nigeria need today. Without prejudice to my respect for Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, they are both in the same category with Mr. Obi. Alh. Atiku has been either a Presidential candidate or aspirant in every election in different parties since 2007. Sen. Kwankwaso has moved from PDP to APC, back to PDP between 2015 and 2019, before finally forming New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in 2022 and present himself as the Presidential candidate of the party for 2023 election.

Out of all the leading candidates, the only one that has never left his party to any party is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is the only one that although he has been a national political leader since he left office as Governor of Lagos State in 2007 that is presenting himself for the first time as a Presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. In addition, he is the only contestant who together with other leaders of APC envisioned the political roadmap for the defeat of PDP. Together with President Muhammadu Buhari they provided the inspirational leadership that successfully negotiated the emergence of APC in 2013. The formation of APC was the first successful merger negotiation of opposition parties in Nigeria. It was also the first opposition to defeat a ruling party in 2015.

Without doubt, Nigerians had a lot of expectations. One of the expectations of Nigerians and indeed many of us in APC is that the management of the APC will broaden internal democracy and minimise, if not eliminate politics of imposition of candidates, which is the main characteristics of PDP. Broadening internal democracy is correlated to facilitate the emergence of good accountable leaders. Internal management of political parties and the process of candidates’ selection within a political party are strongly entwined such that once leaders of a political party are weakly accountable to members and interest groups within the party, it will be highly probable that internal process of candidate selection will hardly be representative of the diverse interests of members. Once emergence of candidates is not representative of interests of members of political parties, elected representatives produced by such party are more likely to be unaccountable to electorates.

Before highlighting our reality in APC, it is interesting how activist with some clear ideological orientation can suggest that a Mr. Obi who within a week of his exit out of PDP and joining LP can inspire any hope of emerging as an accountable President. In the case of Alh. Atiku, the level of intolerance and mismanagement of internal leadership dispute should frighten every patriotic Nigerian about entrusting the leadership of the country to such a person. Sen. Kwankwoso’s politics present him as philosopher king which only revolves around his person and any opposition will not be allowed.

The reality in APC is that party management is weakly accountable to members and interest groups within the party. Party organs are not meeting as provided in the party constitution, which undermine issues of accountability by party leaders. There are internal opposition to this reality, which often contest discretionary decisions by party leaders. For instance, during the last process that produced candidates for the 2023 election within the APC, there were instances of attempts to impose discretionary decisions, which would have led to imposition of Presidential candidate. Thanks to the personal disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari who refused to adopt any discretionary decision to impose a so-called consensus candidate, internal opposition to the attempt by some party leaders to impose a so-called consensus candidate, which led to the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of our party.

The emergence of Asiwaju as the Presidential candidate of APC was the product of open internal contest in APC. Unlike most of the Presidential candidates of the other opposition parties, Asiwaju was not a product of imposition. It can also be argued that Alh. Atiku also won PDP primary. However, the difference between Asiwaju and Alh. Atiku is the ability to successful negotiate and win the support of other party leaders who contested against him. Today, all those who contested against Asiwaju in APC are working for his victory.

One of the crimes of Asiwaju as propagated by the opposition is the so-called failure of APC government at federal level. No doubt, like any other nation, Nigeria is faced with challenges. Do these challenges represent failure? No. Both Asiwaju and the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) have recognise the progress recorded by APC administration of President Buhari and the challenges facing the country. Both Asiwaju and all leaders of APC are never in denial of all the challenges facing the country. In addition, both Asiwaju and all APC leaders have evaluated our performance in government at federal level.

The disposition of Asiwaju and all our leaders is to develop the needed strategy on what needs to be done to build on all the successes of President Buhari’s administration. As part of that disposition is the question of further deepening accountability both within the party and between elected leaders and Nigerians. This is a fundamental issue and is at the heart of all the challenges facing the country. For Nigeria to be a truly democratic nation, both political parties and elected representatives must be accountable. Unlike all the other candidates, it is only Asiwaju who is a product of internal struggle within the party for accountability. The candidature of Asiwaju therefore represent the hope for the emergence of accountable leaders. To have accountable leaders require the presence of political parties with accountable management as provided in their rules.

There are other subsidiary issues that unfortunately are being used by political opposition to rationalise political choices of individuals. This includes the whole challenge of brain drain, for instance. While it is important to recognise the desire of every human being to access better opportunities, we must, as a nation, avoid generalisations. Nigerians who moved of out of the country in search of greener pastures are in different categories. There are those who legitimately want to excel in their chosen field of endevour international. There are those who just believe that they can only excel outside Nigeria because, for them, Nigeria represents everything that is bad. There is the third category who are simply just adventurous and just want to go into the world and have a feel of the good life that is out there.

Somehow, many so-called Obidients have politicise discussions around the issue of brain drain and they use it buttress issues of failure of government. Brain drain is certainly a challenge and if Nigeria is to develop, we must address any condition that makes us unable as a nation to keep our skilled labour force. At the same time, we must also be able to attract our children back home to contribute to the development of the country after studies abroad. The debate about managing these challenges should be separated from that of managing the challenge of some Nigerians who left the country without the requisite skills to enable them access opportunities outside Nigeria. Therefore, while recognising the legitimate voices of Nigerian diaspora professionals about the desire to produce good leaders in the country, we must also be wary about the desperate voices of some diaspora Nigerians whose anger is not limited to our situation in Nigeria, but more a reflection of personal frustration because of being unable to develop needed skills to access the opportunities that took them out of the country in the first place.

Be that as it may however, as a nation, our political leaders must be prepared to engage this reality. Addressing this reality is more a function of recognising our diversity and how it manifests in our national challenges. This what Asiwaju, in the foreword to Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, eloquently highlighted that “Nigeria is a unique nation, impressive in its diverse character and composition, resounding and hopeful in unity and collective fate. Home to over 200 million vibrant people, Nigeria stands as the most populous nation on the African continent and the largest concentration of Black people on earth. It is beyond debate that we owe the duty of national progress to our progeny and to ourselves.”

This is more about our vision to make our leaders accountable and not simple choices of individual candidates. Many of us in APC are supporting Asiwaju as part of our ongoing campaign to continue to build the APC as a progressive party, capable of producing accountable elected representatives at all levels. We do so with full confidence that Asiwaju will build on the legacy of President Buhari, which also include respecting internal debate and contestation within the APC. APC is the only party today in Nigeria that permit internal debate and contestations.

* Dr Salihu Lukman is a member of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress

January 20, 2023

Sultan Abubakar denies endorsing Peter Obi

Peter Obi, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE SULTANATE…

IGNORE IRRESPONSIBLE ATTEMPT TO DRAG SULTAN INTO POLITICS of 2023 BY PETER OBI CAMPAIGNERS

The attention of Media Team of Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, has been drawn to a statement circulating on social media titled, “BREAKING: SULTAN OF SOKOTO WRITES” with an opening credited to Sultan purportedly saying, “Hold me responsible if Peter Obi didn’t perform well, the problem of the North is from the north, not Peter Obi or an Igbo man, it will be worst and more deadly for the North if Tinubu wins, if they tell you an Igbo man is the problem of Nigeria, tell them Igbo man never rule Nigeria before and north is world poverty capital”.

Ordinarily the statement should not be dignified with a pinch of reaction but because of the need to put the record straight for the sake of truth seeking Nigerians. Recall that this is not the first time such misleading statement would be circulated in effort to climb on the influential personality and name of the Sultan to score political goals. Unfortunately for the these pitiable political campaigners, Sultan of Sokoto is – strictly speaking – a traditional ruler and leader of Muslims of Africa’s most populous country. Moreso, as a retired Army General, his discipline, commitment and unalloyed to Nigeria is non-nogotiable.

For the avoidance of doubt, the statement is fake because such an irresponsible write-up, credited to him, could not have emanated from anywhere near or around His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

Between Wednesday and Thursday, the Sultan played host to several figures including the outgoing and new General Officers Commanding (GOCs), Eighth Division Nigerian Army, Sokoto, Major Generals O. Bassey and Godwin Mutkut, respectively, Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kashim Shettima, among others.

It would interest Nigerians to know that Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Dr. Peter Obi, was not one of those that paid visit to the palace, be it on Wednesday or Thursday. So, how some agents of discord whose stock-in-trade is to thrive on cooking falsehoods and peddling of Fame news think that they can get through with this remains unknown to common sense.

The simple challenge is to ask them to publish a copy of the letter purportedly written by the Sultan or a video or audio clip where he endorsed Peter Obi and denied APC Presidential Candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as contained in their peddled fakeness. If they cannot, and of a surety they cannot, they should desist from this indefensible claim and unpardonable lie using the good bane of his His Eminence because it will backfire.

It should, however, be made clear to the good people of Nigeria that this , like many others in the past by the Peter Obi campaigners, would not stop the Sultan from continuing to play his role as a multifaceted leader and father of all and so, his doors will remain open to all aspirants across all parties and other meaningful people from across the country.

More important to Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar at this time and always are security, peace and unity of Nigeria, especially as the nation is fast moving into its long planned and heavily invested general elections. He will continue to support all efforts that will lead to success of the election process. So, let any incoherent claims of naysayers be ignored. Sultan is not a politician.

PRINCE BASHIR ADEFAKA,
For: Media Team of the Sultan of Sokoto

Thursday January 19, 2023.

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Tag: Peter Obi