The Peter Obi Support Network has carpeted the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, over his comments that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, does not have a chance to win the 2023 presidential election.
In statement on July 23, through its spokesman, Comrade Sani Altukry, the group said that Atiku wrongly based his permutation for 2023 election on the assumed influence of corruption promoting and vote-buying mercenaries, called political structure.
According to the Obi’s camp, the PDP presidential flagbearer took the people for granted by failing to consider their unassailable powers and acknowledging them as the key determinants of election victory.
“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, Atiku 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 group insisted that 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.
It said that the people are ready to break the chains and shackles for which they are derided as being “sub-citizens” with the so-called structure being the deciders of where their votes shall go.
The statement read in part: “The attention of Peter Obi Support Network has been drawn to a recorded interview of His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in which he 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 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.”
Atiku, had, in a programme on Arise TV yesterday, July 22, had said that Peter Obi cannot win the 2023 presidential election because the Labour Party does not have structure in the grassroots, such as governor elected on its platform and National Assembly members.
But reacting to the comment, the Peter Obi group described the former vice president’s comments as “unsolicited and clearly erroneous political consultancy.”
