The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has assured his supporters that he will contest the 2027 general election on the party’s platform.
He gave the assurance while speaking to a group of young supporters in a seven minutes, 16 seconds video circulating on the party’s WhatsApp platform on Saturday.
Obi explained to his audience that what appears to be an internal crisis in the two dominant opposition political parties – the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, – has the government’s imprint written all over them.
In response to a question on which platform he intended to contest the 2027 elections, Obi said, “I will still continue to run in the Labour Party. I’m a member of the Labour Party.”
While answering another question from a youth who was apparently disturbed about what appears to be Obi’s aloofness towards the LP’s crisis, the former Anambra State Governor said: “What is happening in the Labour Party and the PDP is caused by the government. Quote me anywhere.
“We had a problem in our party before, in the past. Yar’Adua was the president. I went to him then; he called the INEC Chairman (Prof. Maurice Iwu) and told him I don’t want any problem in any party. We were forced to fix it.
“But today, in all the parties, there are problems. These are deliberate problems caused by the system. These are some of the things I want to clean up if I have the opportunity.
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“Parties will function very well because you can’t have a system working without a strong opposition.”
He charged Nigerians to take responsibility for ensuring that their votes count, because even if agents are paid by political parties to look after their interests, the ultimate decision about the people’s votes counting rests with voters.
The LP standard bearer appealed to Nigerian youths and the electorate not to be discouraged because positive change will also be resisted by those who are beneficiaries of the old order.
He equally noted that, left to him, there should be a retirement age for politicians seeking public office.
Obi said that by the time the 2027 election holds, he would be 65 years old, adding that he would not want to be contesting for elections in his 70s.
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