Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Labour Party has carpeted the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, over his controversial interview where he said that the North would not vote for Labour Party’s presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi, should he be the candidate of the proposed NNPP-LP alliance for the 2023 general election.
Piqued by the boastful claims and arrogant remarks by the former Kano State Governor in the controversial interview, LP told Kwankwaso to stop overrating himself, as his self-acclaimed popularity is no match to that of Obi.
Labour Party further argued that it is the height of greed for the North West which produced the incumbent President Muhamnadu Buhari to think that Buhari’s successor should still come from the zone.
National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, told Kwankwaso that it was wrong of him to imagine that Obi would be his running mate in the proposed merger when Obi is the reason Nigerian youths are mobilising to be part of the 2023 poll.
Abure said that instead of Obi becoming Kwankwaso’s running mate, Kwankwaso should rather be the running mate to the former Anambra State Governor whose wave of popularity and national appeal is already blowing across the country.
According to him, “the truth of the matter is that it is in Kwankwaso’s own interest for him to take the Vice Presidency. Peter Obi is the man of the moment, he has the credentials and he is the most popular as we speak and not Kwankwaso.
“When you look at fairness and equity, it doesn’t favour Kwankwaso, the mood of the country as it stands does not favour Kwankwaso. The late President Musa Yar’adua was from the North-West, the current President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) is from the North-West, Nigerians will not accept another person from the North-West.
“These are factors that come to play and I don’t think we should be arrogant about it.”
Kwankwaso had during the interview said: “What I’m telling you is that if anybody from the South-East now, under this circumstance, becomes the presidential candidate of our party or any other party, the implications is that because of the activities and other issues that are really on the ground, northern voters will certainly go for their northern candidate and another party. So, the thinking is not whether I like it or I don’t, the fact remains that everybody will lose. He will lose and I will lose.”
