2023 Presidential Election: Atiku writes off Peter Obi, Labour Party

Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, says Labour Party’s flagbearer Peter Obi and his social media supporters are no threat to PDP ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Mr Atiku disclosed this when asked if Obi, who was his running mate in the 2019 election, would be a threat to his presidential ambition.

“We 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 election in Osun state. What is the performance of the Labour Party?” Mr Abubakar noted in an interview with ARISE TV. “This is a party that doesn’t have a governor, members of National Assembly, state assembly members.”

According to Mr Abubakar, politics in Nigeria depends on the structures that politicians and political parties have at the local government, state and national levels. 

“So it is difficult to expect a miracle to happen simply because Peter Obi is in the Labour Party,” the former vice president pointed out. “After all, they said through social media they have more than one million votes in Osun state. But how many turned out to vote for Labour Party?”

In Saturday’s governorship election in Osun, Labour Party had measly 2,729 votes compared to PDP’s 403,371 votes.

Mr Atiku’s comments came a day after Mr Obi claimed 100 million poor Nigerians, 35 million unemployed youths, and God were his structures, dismissing criticisms that he had no political structure to win the 2023 presidential election.

“I have said it before when people talk about structure that my structure is the 100 million Nigerians living in poverty; 35 million people unemployed. Those people who are finding it difficult to live,” Mr Obi asserted.

The Labour Party presidential candidate hopes to upend Mr Abubakar and APC presidential flag bearer Bola Tinubu in next year’s presidential election.