The spokesman of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Senator Dino Melaye, has said that anyone who votes for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party for the 2023 polls, Peter Obi, was invariably voting for the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Melaye made his position known on Saturday when he spoke with newsmen in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He said voting for Obi will only deplete the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said: “I will state without colouring it: And Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for APC because Peter Obi cannot make it.
“So, anybody that is voting for Labour Party is actually voting for Tinubu.
“Anybody that is campaigning for Peter Obi is actually praying and working for Tinubu to become the president of the Republic of Nigeria because if you are voting for Peter, you are depleting the votes of the PDP because Peter cannot make it.
“The truth of the matter is that Labour Party only fielded 30 out of 109 candidates for the Senate.
“So, who is going to protect the votes of the Labour Party when even fielding candidates for senatorial seats, 109 senatorial seats, they could not?
“They only fielded in 30 constituencies.
“Even the House of Reps, couldn’t field in every constituency.
“For the House of Assembly, they couldn’t field up to 50 per cent of the seats across the country.
“Everybody who’s a politician knows that this criterion, indices, a yardstick for measuring your national spread.
“And there is no regional champion that has ever been president in this country.
“Peter Obi must know that.
“(Obafemi) Awolowo was a fantastic leader intellectually mobile and cerebral, very sagacious.
“But because he was running original grounds, both as Action Group and UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria), he never became the president of this country.
“(Nnamdi) Azikiwe, another fantastic nationalist, but because of this regional thing, he was a regional champion, his enclave only produced governors within the eastern part of his country.
“Aminu Kano, the friend of the talakawas, very pious man, with all sincerity and integrity could only win elections, and PRP (Peoples Redemption Party) could only win elections in Kano and Kaduna.
“(President Muhammadu) Buhari himself ran on the regional ground three times and lost woefully because he was the regional champion, both in ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party), in APP (All Peoples Party), and in CPC (Congress for Progressive Change), he couldn’t until he eventually now ran on a national platform.
“When people like Atiku, Tinubu, Saraki and myself collapsed to form a national party was when Buhari could not become president.
“So, historically, Peter ought to know that no regional champion can be president in Nigeria.”
Melaye, however, said Abubakar would win the election without Obi’s votes and support.
He said: “As I speak with you, with Peter or no Peter, Atiku is going to win the next election.
“Because we have looked at it, we have looked at the spread, we have looked at the acceptability, we have looked at the programmes.
“We know that APC cannot make it.
“Only people who suffer arthritis of the brain will go out and vote for APC with the outrageous calamitous situation we are in in this country.
“The dollar is running close to N900.
“Poverty is pervasive.
“Insecurity is on the daily rise.
“There is a hopeless situation.
“Borrow borrowing has become a pattern of this government.
“We have a government that does not give single hope to the masses of his country.
“Everybody even in the city of Abuja is sleeping with his eyes half closed.
“And the holy book says should we continue in sin and ask grace to abound?
“How do we pray that Tinubu should come and continue with insecurity?
“Tinubu should come and continue with kidnapping?
“Tinubu should come and continue with banditry?
“Tinubu should come and continue with a rise in the price of goods and commodities in this country?
“Tinubu should come and continue with poverty, hunger and starvation?
“Tinubu should come and continue with bad roads, decaying infrastructure?
“If APC comes back, what we are saying is that we want it to come and reinforce failure.
“So, nobody will pray for APC.
“Nobody’s even going to vote for APC.
“And the satanic manifestation of the Muslim-Muslim ticket is there for them to battle.
“So, the only edge APC will be having is for those who don’t understand politics to go and work for Peter.
“Peter is a creation of Atiku.
“Nobody knew Peter on the national platform till Atiku made him vice presidential candidate.
“So, Peter will be a creation of Atiku and his movement is a euphoria that is gradually dying.
“By January, it will go down more because people will realise that it is going to be a wasted vote.
“People will realise that he cannot become president.
“And people will realise that voting for Peter is voting for Tinubu.
“So, that is why I’m having a clarion call on Peter Obi, a gentleman, progressive-minded, sound, in the interest of this country for his tomorrow, he should give his today and come back home to support his elder brother and mentor.”
When asked if he known that Obi’s moment had gone beyond him as an individual, Melaye said: “Because they don’t understand.
“Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country.
“No, you don’t give carpentry jobs to tailors.
“Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country.
“And what we need more than anything in our national life now is unity.
“Because without unity, there can be no peace.
“Without peace, there can be no development.
“You first need peace before you can be talking of security and economy and Peter Obi cannot, he does not have what it takes to unite this country.
“Who will he be speaking to in Damaturu?
“Who is going to listen to Peter Obi in Marafa?
“Who is Peter Obi going to talk to Aiyetoro Gbede?
“Who is Peter Obi going to talk to in Biu?
“But Atiku, every state of this country is home to Atiku.
“Atiku can mention two three friends in every local government in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That is the type of man we need to bring back our long-lost reputation as a nation, to bring back the unity that we have lost.
“The Ibo will be comfortable with Atiku’s presidency.
“The Yorubas will be comfortable in an Atiku presidency.
“The Hausa Fulani, the Ijaws, the Ibibios, the Tivs, the Kanuris will be happy with an Atiku presidency because they know that Atiku is not a religious bigot, he’s not an ethnic champion.
“He is a detribalised Nigerian.
:He has Yoruba children, he has Ibo children, he has Hausa children, he has Fulani children.
“And everyone knows that he is highly detribalised.
“So, that is the type of president we need.
“None of them has the national experience of Atiku Abubakar.
“He understands the problem of this country.”
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