The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has asked electorates to do background checks on all presidential candidates before listening to whatever promises they make. Speaking to Nigerians that came to welcome him in Frankfurt, Germany on Friday, Obi said the electorate not to listen to any of the presidential candidates speaking through proxies. According to the Peter Obi Support Network Media group, the presidential candidate, while addressing Nigerians in Frankfurt, said that every candidate must come and tell Nigerians his agenda to make Nigeria work. Obi said, “When you listen to us, go and check our background, this is not a time for somebody to show us his qualifications, I live in Nigeria and I know Nigeria and what Nigerians need. I am not a stranger to Nigerian problems. “I am a trader but I have a privilege to go to some of the best of schools like Oxford, Cambridge, and other Ivy league institutions, but I always say to people that educational qualification is not the same as integrity. “Listen to all the presidential candidates not through proxy. Let anyone who wants to be your President come forward himself and speak to you directly, because he is the one you will hold responsible for whatever happens to Nigeria under his care. “This campaign is not a campaign you are going to speak through somebody, that person needs to come and directly tell us what he is going to do for our country and we must take note of whatever he says and hold him by his words. “We also don’t want that would be carried to this place in a wheel chair, but must consider his capacity, competence, integrity and commitment.” Talking about racism, Peter Obi said, “I don’t see any country as racist. If you think your host country is racist you can go back to your country. The reason why you are here is because your place is not working. “So, it is our duty to turn things around in Nigeria for the good of our country. “Somebody asked me a question about going to look for foreign investors, I said Nigerians outside are going to do what China and India did. “It is good for us to go back and fix our place, we need to secure it and it is important for our place to have proper leadership that is visionary, there is nothing happening in other countries that is rocket science, a country is measured by its productive capacity. “Somebody asked me what are we going to do to stabilise the naira and I said it is very simple; production, because the more you produce goods and export , the more your currency becomes stronger, if you are looking for dollars and Euro, just go and sell something to somebody that has euro and dollar and your currency will become strong. We will ensure security of lives and bring stability to governance. “Our human capital today is low, we have 200 million people with barely ten percent productive capacity. You also need to reduce the cost of Governance and have zero tolerance for corruption. People cannot continue to do what they are doing with government resources.” He promised to provide opportunity for diaspora Nigerians to vote in the 2027 elections if elected president next year. Mr Peter Obi also assured that Africa will remain the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy as it will improve diplomatic sphere of influence via peacekeeping, trade, and investment initiatives.

  Abdulmumin Jibrin, a former house of representatives member, says Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), now controls the northern votes of President Muhammadu Buhari. Jibrin spoke on Friday during an interview with Channels Television. Recently, there have been speculations that Kwankwaso might ask his supporters to vote for Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the 2023 election. Reacting to the speculation, Jibrin, who is the spokesperson of the Kwankwaso presidential campaign, said the former governor is not considering merging with the APC. He said no presidential candidate will get more votes than Kwankwaso in the northern region of the country. “We have debunked these lies over and over again. It is an attempt to give a wrong impression to the public for one or two parties to be able to raise their standing in public,” he said. “Kwankwaso is a practical politician, we are serious-minded people. We are not in this race for anyone and I have said it over and over again. “People should disregard all these rumours that ‘Kwankwaso is working for Asiwaju, We are going to merge with APC’. “How will he do that? Somebody who is controlling the heart of the north. Somebody who is the beneficiary of the 12 million Buhari’s votes. “Kwankwaso is the most popular person, most loved. He is the person who is going to control those votes. Now look at the dynamics of the election today, there is no sitting governor in the northern part of the country that is contesting for the presidency so every governor has its peculiar challenges in his state. “What the governors are interested in is to deliver their states. They know it is dangerous for you within your states to say you are going against Kwankwaso because Kwankwaso has his own direct connection with the masses.   “In the entire northern part of the country, nobody is going to get the quantum of votes, Kwankwaso is going to pull out.”

  Dele Alake, director of strategic communication in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, says those criticising Bola Tinubu’s godfatherism in Lagos are envious of his good deeds. Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, was governor of Lagos state from 1999 to 2007. Since then, he has spread his political tentacles and gained influence in national politics through his allies. Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme on Friday, Alake said that though the notion of godfatherism has been given a negative connotation in Nigeria, there is nothing wrong with the concept if used to promote the public good. He said those who criticise the former governor for being a godfather lack the mental and financial capability to attain the hegemonic status. “The notion of godfatherism has been given a negative connotation in the political lexicon of Nigeria and by those who are unnecessary envious of others, not because they do not wish to be godfathers if they could work for it if they could have the mental and financial wherewithal to become a godfather,” he said. “There is nothing absolutely wrong with godfatherism if that godfatherism is public-spirited. “Awolowo, our revered sage, was a godfather because he produced many other leaders, and Ahmadu Bello was a godfather because he produced many leaders.   “Nnamdi Azikwe was a godfather because he also sired leaders politically, so therefore why should Tinubu’s own be given a negative connotation simply because people who are indolent, lazy, suffuse with inertia and lethargy, cannot work assiduously and cannot attain political height through which they could also develop other leaders and become positive godfathers. “So, there is nothing essentially, inherently wrong with having a godfather as long as it is public-spirited.”

  Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday urged members of the party to beginobilisation for next year’s election, noting that staying united was the only way its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and others can win next year’s election. The former two-time governor of Edo State, at a stakeholders meeting in Benin debunked claim that he has endorsed a candidate for the 2024 governorship election in the state, stating that he has learnt his lesson. Oshiomhole, the APC Senatorial candidate in Edo North, said that party leaders in the local government have an important role to play in the forthcoming elections, appealing to them to go to their various local governments, hold meeting and sell their candidates to electorates at the grass root. He also called on aggrieved members to take a cue from him when he was ousted as the chairman of the party after serving for two years. He said, “The primaries are over and the candidates have emerged. We need to put away our differences that came at the primaries and queue behind our candidates, beginning from our presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, for two-time Governor of Lagos and the party’s national leader. “The aggrieved members of the should learn from my act of political tolerance when I was ousted from office as the national chairman of the party. I had the opportunity to seek in redress, which would have stalled the party’s congress, but I didn’t. “I have not endorsed anybody for the governorship election and I will not be doing so. I have learnt from my mistakes. I have also not ask anyone to step down or asked anyone to step up. The only person I asked to step down was my younger brother and this is because two Oshiomhole cannot be on the ballot. “In the past, when I asked people to step down, they did and never forgave me, while the ones that stepped up have not done anything to show for the faith responded in them.” While speaking on the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, he urged Nigerians not to be deceived by what other presidential candidates from other parties are saying, noting Tinubu is a tolerant Nigerian who has no ambition of making Nigeria an Islamic country. Oshiomhole said, “We should explain to people about the APC ticket because there has been deliberate misinformation and an attempt to make the debate personal instead of issue-based. “The issue is that we should vote a person that will develop the country. Those dwelling on the Muslim-Muslim ticket are doing so to distract people from the major issues. If they ask for your vote ask them to show you what they have done to deserve your vote. “Tinubu did not make Islam mandatory for his wife who is a Senator and a pastor. His children are also Christians and Muslims. Is there a better example of religion tolerance? “So, the Muslim Muslim ticket is not the problem today. You have unemployed christians youths who are hungry and we have unemployed Muslim youths who are hungry. Does it matter who governs? Whoever will develop Nigeria that I think should be the issues and all these sentiments are meant to remove issues from the debate.”

  Osita Okechukwu, director-general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), has cautioned Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, against losing out in the current political permutations in the country. On Tuesday, Wike met with Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Paris, France. A few days later, Wike also had meetings with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Peter Obi, flagbearer of the Labour Party (LP), and Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). TheCable had reported that Obasanjo is lobbying Wike to support Obi’s presidential bid. Commenting on the development, Okechukwu said Wike is currently enjoying “the moment” but should not be carried away by the attention he is getting from political bigwigs. “Is it not Nollywood characteristic that he (Wike) met with the leading big three presidential candidates – Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of APC, Peter Obi of Labour Party and lastly Atiku Abubakar of PDP?” he asked. “My candid advice is that he should not make the mistake of rewarding Atiku Abubukar, who betrayed the south and by extension Wike, who could have won the PDP presidential primary election. “The grave danger of Wike making the gross mistake of going back to Atiku, who is now the new sheriff in charge of PDP, take my bet, is that he will definitely suffer from dagger’s syndrome.” According to Okechukwu, Wike should either align himself with Tinubu or Obi. “For Asiwaju, he will harvest from our (APC) spread. For Obi, his constituents and allies may be more comfortable,” he said. “The truism is that patriots of both north and south are not so happy with the betrayal of the rotation convention by Atiku, this made a lot to doubt his proclamation of being a unifier. “He is not a unifier, for a unifier cannot breach the constitution of his political party and the federal character principle enunciated in 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”