Peter Obi Knocks Kwankwaso Again After Unveiling Baba-Ahmed As Running Mate

Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, on Friday took a fresh swipe at former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso over his recent claim that nobody from the South East can win the 2023 presidential election.

Kwankwaso, who is the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential flagbearer, during a recent interview said that northern voters would rather elect a northern presidential candidate than vote for an aspirant from the South East, regardless of their political party.

The former Kano governor pinned the northern voters’ supposed preference for a northern presidential candidate to the secession agitation in the South East.

But Obi on Friday described Kwankwaso’s comment as “primitive politics of ethnicity and religion” that has not helped Nigeria’s unity, adding that the citizens must work to replace “incompetence with merit” going forward.

He spoke at the unveiling of Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate on Friday.

Although Obi did not mention Kwankwaso’s name, his statement was apparently directed at the NNPP candidate’s earlier remark on the South East.

“We are bringing in all Nigerians because we want to end the primitive politics of ethnicity, religion and all sorts of things.

“As I’ve said, show me in the North where there is uninterrupted electricity, show me where people are not hungry, show me where there is no poverty in the North, show me where people are prospering and unemployment is not in the North. Show it to me in the South, there is none, but politicians give an excuse (that) ‘because he is from here’…What we want now is to replace all that incompetence with merit and that is why I said to my younger brother, this is not a journey where you think anybody is boss,” said the Labour Party candidate.

Obi told a cross-section of party members and journalists at the unveiling that they would “soon select a team” adding that “We are going to have a team of people who would join us to be able to succeed and to be able to build a Nigeria that we desire….to start bringing people to have faith in their country, to have hope and to be proud to call Nigeria their own.”

Obi said the decision on Datti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate on took months of consultations because he needed “somebody who will fit the bill of what we are trying to do and we have been able to meet and secure somebody who is eminently qualified.”

He added, “I know many will say we are no there yet but I can tell you that we know where we are going.

“This is our match to secure, unite and make Nigeria productive and you can’t do it without having people who have a similar vision, similar ideas, and are prepared. I have a very distinctive honour to present to you somebody I can call a friend, a younger brother and God willing, the next vice president of Nigeria in the person Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, who has been described as one of the brightest and youngest personalities in Nigeria that has distinguished himself in all areas.

“He brings to this mission a great wealth of experience from the background of the private sector to the public sector and a global knowledge that will help in our journey of turning around this country.

“Today, our country is facing so many challenges which I will not want to mention because we are just here to introduce our vice-presidential candidate but I will not be doing a great service to our country if I do not mention some of those.

“We are today the poverty capital of the world. We are today hugely indebted and have said in my interview few days ago that we are actually about to be default in our debt servicing which will just trigger us into junk status. I pray it doesn’t happen but that is where we are.

“BY the end of this year….100% of our revenue will not be enough to service our debt. That is where we’ve gotten ourselves into. Our people are hungry, angry and all this is culminating effect of bad leadership and we’ve decided to halt this collapse, to stop this drift.”

The Labour Party candidate further promised to come up with policies and a manifesto that would be anchored on the 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) position to ‘rescue the country’.

He urged Nigerians to take note of such promises and “hold us accountable” if they eventually win the election.