The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that his opposition candidate, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) will only win by miracle.
In an interview on Arise TV on Friday, Atiku was questioned; “Your erstwhile running mate, Peter Obi left the PDP and joined the Labour Party and is also running for President. How do you think this will affect your prospects given that the South East has always been such a safe zone for the PDP?”.
Responding, the former Vice President said; “I rarely don’t expect the Labour Party to take as much votes from the PDP as people are suggesting. We could have seen it in the last elections in Osun State. What is the performance of the Labour Party.
“This is a Party that doesn’t have a Governor, doesn’t have members of the National Assembly, doesn’t have members of the State House of Assembly and Politics in this Country depends on the structures you have at these various levels: At the Local Government level, at the State level and at the National level.
“So, it is very very difficult to expect a miracle to happen simply because Peter Obi is in Labour Party.
“Afterall, they were saying through the social media, they have more than one million votes in Osun State but how many people stand out to vote for Labour Party, and there again mark you, you are talking about social media, in the North 90% of our people are not tuned to social media.”
Also speaking on why he chose Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa instead of the former presidential aspirant and governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, Atiku said; “In arriving at the decision, I held wide consultations with various stakeholders in our party including our governors, the national working committee, board of trustees, and other leaders to seek their inputs and their wisdom.”
“In these consultations, I made clear that my running mate would have the potential to succeed me at a moment’s notice, that is, a president-in-waiting.
“In other words, the person must have the qualities to be President. The person must have an appreciation of the deep rot which our country has been put into by the rudderless All Progressives Congress government; understands the great suffering that most of our people are going through and the urgency of relieving them of that suffering; understands the critical importance of economic growth and development to provide our young people with jobs, hope, and a pathway to wealth.”
