‘Peter Obi Must End Alliance Talks with Kwankwaso’ – Group

Peter Obi Support Network has called on the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to immediately end talks of an alliance with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The group said this in reaction to an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where Kwankwaso stated that he could never be running mate to Peter Obi.

Kwankwanso’s ally, Buba Galadima, had also on Arise Television stated that Kwankwaso was more qualified to be president that Obi.

In a statement on Monday, the Director of Strategic Communication, POSN, Onwuasoanya Jones, said Kwankwaso’s continuous association with Peter Obi would be a liability rather than an asset.

While describing the former Kano State governor as a religious bigot, the group slammed Kwankwaso for his utterances and those of his aides.

It stated that by his comments on livetelevision, Kwankwaso might be aiming to be an ethnic-inspired candidate rather than a New Nigeria patriot and advocate.

POSN advised the leadership of the LP to immediately call off any discussions with the NNPP on the issue of forming an alliance between them.

The group said the NNPP and her candidate have consistently displayed unfortunate insensitivity to the aspirations and desires of long-suffering Nigerians for a working, united and equitable Nigeria and have shown themselves as being incapable and unready to support or participate in the process of electing a President that will make this happen in 2023.

The statement read in part, “Following his recent outing on Politics Today aired on Channels Television, all doubts have been erased that the presidential candidate of the fledgling NNPP, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, is not ideologically inclined to Mr. Peter Obi or the Labour Party, especially on the key issues driving the former Anambra governor’s aspiration to the presidency.

“His Excellency Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has regrettably manifested a most distasteful understanding of the Nigerian situation, as he advertised himself as primarily hinging his aspiration to the presidency on the basis of where he comes from rather than where he wants to take Nigeria to, by arguing that his candidacy is propelled by the North rather than by Nigerians and also emphasizing on our ethnic differences rather than blunting them.

“We should understand that Dr. Kwankwaso sharing a ticket with Peter Obi will alienate genuine Nigerian patriots who have bought into the Peter Obi candidacy out of their conviction that it is a unifying, ideas driven, and masses propelled pan Nigerian project.

“By coming on television, even while the alliance talks are yet to be finalised, to categorically foreclose the chances of pairing with Mr. Peter Obi as running mate, Dr. Kwankwaso has shown himself as coming to this alliance negotiations with a closed mindset and as a self-centered manipulator rather than being open to superior ideas, logics, and credible electoral and political data or having the slightest pretext to patriotism.

“And it is without any iota of doubt that should Kwankwaso by any political magic or dangerous spin of fate emerges President, he will be one of the worst primordialists and religious bigots to have presided over the affairs of this country.

“Kwankwaso’s continuous association with the Peter Obi candidacy will be a liability rather than an asset as his utterances and those of his aides and key supporters have continued to raise eyebrows among patriotic Nigerians who are driving the Peter Obi electoral revolution out of their conviction on his competence and unquestionable patriotism.

“It bears reiterating that Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, is not motivated by any ethnic, sectional or religious sentiments nor is he banking on the votes of a particular section of the country against the other, but inspired by the dream to, working together with like-minds, accomplish a working, productive, secured and equitable Nigeria, for all, and through the votes of all Nigerian patriots from all sections and classes of Nigeria.

“Dr. Kwankwaso’s motivation and confidence in vying for the presidency are clearly rooted on some self-serving ethnic and class biases, and such an individual shouldn’t be allowed to taint the purely progressive, selfless and people-inspired aspiration of His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi.”