Politics
Again, Obi dusts Atiku, Tinubu, Kwankwaso in fresh poll on 2023 presidency
With Peter Obi getting more endorsements from prominent Nigerian leaders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) as well as Benue State Governor, all coming in quick successions, the road to the Presidential Villa, Nigeria’s seat of power, appears to be getting wider by the day.
It comes with a fresh survey conducted by Market Trends International (MTI) on all presidential candidates in the 2023, putting ahead of other contenders, including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC), Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress.
MTI, a market research organisation, which has been operating in Nigeria and other African countries for over 30 years and which is also skilled in both qualitative and quantitative studies, is the latest of the polls both local and international, which placed Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, ahead of , among others.
Victor Ozinegbe Ebhomenye, Executive Director, MTI, who said 44 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would likely vote Obi, the former governor of Anambra State in the 2023 presidential election, reports: “This may have come as a surprise to Nigerians because the Labour Party and Obi had no presence in Nigerian presidential scene as at December 2021.”
He said the survey, conducted between November 9 and 29, 2022, indicated that Tinubu had 19 per cent respondents, Atiku had 16 respondents; Kwankwaso had 14 per cent respondents, Sowore had zero per cent, others had five per cent, while those that refused and undecided had one per cent each.
Ebhomenye said: “Obi has picked up pace in the race since he declared interest to run with the Labour Party as the party’s presidential candidate at its national convention and presidential primary in Asaba, the capital of Delta State, on Monday, May 30 after other aspirants, like former presidential adviser, Pat Utomi; Faduri Joseph and Olubusola Emmanuel-Tella, stepped down.
“With Obi’s emergence, the party received boosts to achieve lasting alliance talks with NNPP (this alliance is said to have collapsed at the moment; Zenith Labour Party; Allied Peoples Movement; National Rescue Movement; Peoples Redemption Party, and African Democratic Congress, among others before the February 2023 presidential race.”
He said the proposed alliance had halted the APC and PDP from dominating the upcoming elections, adding that the PDP was initially seen as the most popular party to win the 2023 presidential election as at December 2021, with 52 per cent of respondents.
“When asked whom they will vote for, 28 per cent of respondents leaned towards voting for the PDP. However, findings show that 45 per cent of respondents were undecided and did not know which party they would vote for as at December 2021,” MTI further said.
According to the agency, ever since the loss of the party’s presidential ticket in May 2022 and being overlooked as the running mate of the flag-bearer, Atiku, Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike; and four other PDP governors (popularly known as the G5 Governors) have constituted themselves into an opposition within the PDP.
“It is believed these G5 Governors- Wike, Seyi Makinde; Samuel Ortom; Okezie Ikpeazu; and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi- discreetly withdrew their support for Atiku and this could be one factor to explain the drastic fall in support for the PDP. This has also contributed to Tinubu and Obi gaining more grounds in the upcoming presidential election race.
“Furthermore, when asked to advise the incoming president on challenges to tackle immediately he assumes office, Nigerians advised the incoming president to make insecurity (46 per cent), collapsed economy (20 per cent), and unemployment (18 per cent) his top priority, this order tallies with the previous survey results,
“Insecurity in Nigeria is a recurring phenomenon that threatens our well-being. The South-West is plagued by a surge in cyber crime, armed robbery, kidnapping, domestic crime, extra-judicial killings, herder-farmer conflicts, ritual killings and banditry.
“The South East is a haven for ritual killings, commercial crime, secessionist agitation, kidnapping, herder-farmer clashes, attacks by gunmen and banditry.
“The South south remains threatened by militancy, kidnapping and environmental agitation. The North East has been subject to a humanitarian crisis lasting over a decade, caused by the Boko Haram insurgency and the Islamic State in the West Africa Province.
“Meanwhile, the North West is enmeshed in illegal mining, ethno-religious killings, and banditry,” MTI said.
A legal tussle is in the offing to determine the fate of the June 20 by-election to fill the vacancy in the Enugu North senatorial district at the National Assembly, following the decision of the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exclude it from participating.
INEC had approved the participation of only three political parties for the exercise to fill the vacant seat left by Okey Ezea, who died last year, to the exclusion of scores of others including the LP under whose platform the former Senator won the seat in 2023.
Ken Asogwa, spokesman of the party, who gave the update on the next line of action, said LP had already approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to challenge the decision on the ground of wrongful exclusion, saying that the party was deeply disturbed over INEC’s action, especially the reason it gave for it.
Asogwa, who conveyed the decision through a statement on Monday, wondered how its candidate would made to pay for the ineptitude of INEC itself, which failed to carry out its constitutional responsibility.
Stressing that the party complied with all statutory requirements and procedural guidelines, but was still denied access to upload the particulars of its candidate on INEC’s nomination portal, the statement, added: “Up until the close of the submission window on June 2, the party made several efforts, including formal protests and correspondences to the commission, seeking the resolution of the issue, but these efforts yielded no positive result
“The party fulfilled every legal and administrative obligation required under the Electoral Act and INEC’s extant regulations in the nomination of its candidate. Labour Party finds it difficult to understand the basis upon which it had been excluded from an election in which it had a legitimate and undeniable stake.
“It is both disturbing and deeply concerning that the head of Elections and Party Monitoring (EPM) in Enugu State reportedly justified his refusal to transmit the report of the Labour Party’s primary election on the ground that he was out of town on the day the exercise was conducted.
“This excuse is untenable and raises serious questions about the discharge of official responsibilities. Labour Party cannot be made to suffer the consequences of an official’s absence, negligence, incompetence or dereliction of duty.
“Electoral processes and the constitutional rights of political parties cannot be subjected to the convenience or personal circumstances of individual officers. If the officer was unavailable, it is incumbent upon him or INEC in Enugu to ensure that appropriate arrangements were made for the monitoring and reporting of the exercise.
“INEC should not be penalising a political party that duly complied with all statutory requirements. The Electoral Act only requires political parties to duly notify INEC of their primaries. The party complied fully with this statutory requirement. The legality and validity of the exercise cannot be vitiated by INEC’s absence, as neither the Electoral Act nor the commission’s regulation made its physical presence a mandatory condition for the conduct of a party primary election.”
Expressing confidence in Joash Amupitan, INEC Chairman to do the right thing, he however called on the commission investigate the actions taken by its staff members in Enugu and take decisive action against anyone found culpable.
His words: “Electoral institutions derive their legitimacy from public trust and every effort must be made to protect the integrity of the electoral process. It would amount to a grave injustice for Labour Party to be denied the opportunity of presenting a candidate in an election convened to fill a vacancy created by the death of one of its serving senators.
“Such an outcome would not only undermine the rights of the party and its supporters but it tends to diminish the democratic choices available to the people of Enugu North senatorial district in the coming by-election.
“As the party places its confidence in the impartiality and wisdom of the Nigerian judiciary, it urges all its members and supporters in Enugu North and across the country to remain calm while the matter is being determined by the courts.”
A conciliatory Atiku Abubakar, in magnanimity with victory, extended the olive branch to Rotimi Amaechi and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, the pair he defeated on Wednesday night to clinch the ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for next year’s presidential election.
He appealed to both men never to abandon the party ahead of the election, scheduled for January 2027, but to close ranks to ensure victory for both party, Nigeria as a country and the people currently under the bondage of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Extending the olive branch shortly after being handed the party flag, officially declaring him as the candidate, he said: “I therefore appeal to all those who feel aggrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us. In particular, I invite Chief Rotimi Anechi and Alhaji Muhammad Hayatu-Deen to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country.
“As I said previously, there are no winners and no losers. Our people look up to us for leadership and I am ready to lead,” he said.
He added that he would work with other aspirants and stakeholders to build the party ahead of the general election.
“I shall work with you all to continue to build our party. I will campaign with you and if Nigeria’s leaders demand it, govern with you to build a country that works for all of us.”
The appeal is coming hours after both Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and former Minister of Transportation and Hayatu-Deen, former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), rejected the result, even before it was announced, citing what they described as manipulation of the voting process, with Hayatu-Deen saying he would not attend the announcement of the result.
Regardless, Atiku, Nigeria’s former Vice President between 1999 and 2007, said he truly humbled and excited to lead the party into the next elections, adding that he was particularly excited by the party’s demonstration of internal democracy despite the position of naysayers.
Hear him: “I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment.
“Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.
“I thank the primary elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries. I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.
“With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long-suffering people from this government.”
“I will not be attending the announcement of the ADC Presidential Election Results today. I am concerned by reports from across the country of widespread vote rigging, some of which I myself observed, and will therefore be taking advice on my next steps.”
These were the exact words of Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, one of the presidential aspirants of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), with which he cast a slur on the ongoing presidential primaries of the party, hinging his position on reports of fraud trailing the exercise.
Hayatu-Deen, a second timer in the search for the nation’s number one job, ran against Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation.
In a statement on his assessment of the exercise which began on Monday, the renowned economist Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), used his X platform to convey his dissatisfaction with the process.
The ADC which said the collation for the exercise would take place in Abuja had urged aspirants, party leaders, delegates, and members to conduct themselves peacefully and uphold party unity.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, who described the exercise as a defining moment for both the ADC and Nigerians seeking a credible political alternative, maintained that it remained committed to internal democracy and a transparent leadership selection process.
“The ADC remains proud to stand today as the only truly democratic party in Nigeria because it is the only political party whose choice of presidential candidate is determined through open primaries,” he said adding that the conduct of aspirants and party members during the exercise would reflect the leadership culture the ADC seeks to promote.
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