Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) says the political structure of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) consists of “corruption promoting and vote buying mercenaries”.
Obi who was reacting to an interview granted by the PDP candidate on Arise TV, said Atiku was assuming the vote buying mercenaries were politically stronger than the masses who would vote him as the next president.
Atiku in the interview had dismissed the chances of Obi and his Labour Party in the 2023 elections as he claimed they lacked the required political structure to win.
But a statement signed by Comrade Sani Saeed Altukry, spokesman for the Peter Obi Support Network, the campaign organisation of the former Anambra State governor, said Atiku “gave unsolicited and clearly erroneous political consultancy on who can win elections and who cannot win.
“The seventh time presidential aspirant reportedly claimed that today’s most popular presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi cannot win the 2023 presidential election because Labour Party does not have any governor elected on its platform and does not have LP National Assembly members.
“Unfortunately, the former vice-president based his entire permutation on the assumed influence of corruption promoting and vote buying mercenaries euphemistically called political structure, and failed to consider the unassailable powers of the masses of Nigeria, who actually are the most powerful force in a democracy and the key determinants of election victory.
“As every political philosopher knows: sovereignty resides with the people!
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s assertion speaks to the illusions of the fascist school of thought that believes that the masses do not matter and erroneously believes that the masses cannot think for themselves.
“In essence, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is saying that Nigerians are some kind of slaves who cannot take a political decision on their own, except as imposed on them by their slave masters.
“This erroneous idea belongs to the past, and so we assure the former vice-president and those of his class who hold such derogatory perception of Nigerians that a new Nigeria is here and Nigerians are ready to take their destiny in their own hands.
“The Peter Obi candidacy is not a mere political project but a national movement for the reawakening of Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands and break the chains and shackles for which they are derided as being ‘sub-citizens’ with the so-called structure being the deciders of where the votes shall go.”
The network said it was “banking on the votes of the millions of dissatisfied but genuinely patriotic Nigerians who want to see a truly independent, prosperous and thriving democratic Nigeria.”
It called on Atiku to drop his ambition and endorse Obi whose competence, integrity and wide acceptability he had confirmed.
