A group, the Peter Obi Support Network, has asked supporters of former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, to prevail on their principal to step down for the Labour Party candidate (Obi).
The spokesperson for the group, Mr Jones Onwuasoanya maintained that Obi was more competent, prepared and qualified for the position of the president.
He was responding to a statement by the Atiku Support Organisation, which had asked Obi to wait till after 2023 before deciding to contest the presidential elections.
ASO, as the Atiku’s support group is called, also noted that Obi’s political future was not with the LP, stating that he should come back to the PDP if he wanted to really contest the presidency.
The National Publicity Secretary of ASO, Dr Victor Moses, stated this in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday.
Moses, reiterating the stance of the presidential standard bearer, who was featured in an interview with Arise TV recently, said only a miracle would make Obi win the 2023 general polls.
“It would only take a miracle for the Labour Party to be able to do anything in the forthcoming elections. Don’t forget, elections are not won on social media. We have typical people who live in villages where the bulk of the votes come from and do not even have access to Twitter.
“How many Nigerians are on Twitter? That does not mean one can do without the new media in 21st century politics. As far as elections are concerned, grassroots politics is what matters. Do they have it?
“Do they have the structure? There is no House of Representatives member, House of Assembly or governor. Who will protect their votes at the polls? Who are the agents? They have no structure. Let us be sincere.
“The office of the President is not what you get up overnight and decide to become president and you start running on social media and think you are going to win? He has a future but certainly not now, not 2023.
“I will encourage him that if he must contest in 2023, he should return to the PDP because I do not see the Labour Party building a structure that will be formidable enough to contest for the office of the President,” he said.
Reacting to this, Onwuasoanya said Obi was more interested in the future of the country.
“There has to be a Nigeria first before we think of a political future. At this time, anybody who truly believes in Nigeria and knows what is going on in Nigeria will know that Nigeria is in trouble and on the verge of collapse.
“What we need now is someone who can revive Nigeria, not someone who will further worsen the situation. Anyone who truly loves Nigeria and understands the predicament Nigeria is will rather prefer a candidate who is more concerned about the problem.
“Nigerians want someone who is more concerned about solving issues, and that person is Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party. We should rather be asking that the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, owing to the fact that he has also conceded on many platforms that Obi is competent, to step down for Obi.
“Obi is more competent than Atiku, more qualified and more prepared than he (Atiku) is to make Nigeria better at this time. The onus is on him as a patriot that he is to step down and ask his supporters and associates to support Obi in the best interest of Nigeria,” he stated
