“Both APC and the PDP were thinking this Obi does not have structure”

By Simeon OSAJIE

Former Information and National Orientation Minister, Labaran Maku has admitted that many saw the Obidient Movement and the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi as a joke.

Mr. Peter Obi, a former Anambra State governor, took the nation by storm when he emerged as a third-force candidate.  Despite being dismissed as lacking a political structure, the LP candidate who enjoys a huge youth following scored over six million votes and won in 11 states to finish third in the just-concluded exercise.

But while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily about the outcome of the 2023 elections, Maku admitted that the opposition politicians never gave the LP candidate and his supporters a chance.

According to Maku, “What happened in the presidential election as you could see was that there was this wave of young people, the Obidients that we all took for granted and we were thinking Peter Obi was a joke. Where would he go?

“So, both APC and the PDP, we were thinking ‘This man does not have structure. He will not be able to do so much’.”

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, however, maintained that young people proved them wrong and put up an unprecedented showing in the 2023 elections.

“But the young people seized the initiative from the politicians. And for the first time – what we saw in Nasarawa, Edo, several other places, and in Delta State where the PDP vice presidential candidate comes from – we saw that young people were serious about what they were doing and they took advantage of social media to project a programme which has shaken the nation.”

The PDP chieftain from Nasarawa State admitted that the party lost the presidential election in the state to LP but claimed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)’s win in the governorship poll was faulty.

For him, the results of the governorship election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were concocted.