By Nnamdi Ojiego

Despite the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as favoured presidential candidates for the 2023 general election, the clamour for Igbo President with Mr. Peter Obi as the presidential candidate  of the Labour Party, LP, is gathering momentum, according to Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Diretor-General of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organisation. Okupe recently jettisoned his presidential aspiration to support Obi. In this interview, the former Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo, and ex-Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, speaks on how Obi will emerge winner of the 2023 presidential election and plans to build the biggest coalition ever in Nigeria before the election. Excerpts:

Why did you withdraw from the presidential race and what informed your support for Mr. Peter Obi?

Well, I withdrew from the presidential contest because it would be unfair to compete with the South East who for all intent and purposes, should produce the next president of the country if we say that this is the turn of the south. Now, having taken that decision, I took a cursory look at the aspirants from the South East and to the best of my knowledge and my conviction, I saw that Peter Obi was the best of the very best. So I pitched my tent with him.

Do you think Obi leaving the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the Labour Party, LP, was a good decision?

It was an inevitable decision. You know, Peter Obi said something: “I will rather lose doing the right thing than to win doing the wrong thing”. So the way the primaries were being conducted, if he had stayed, he would have to compromise on his principles and ideals.

Did Obi disclose to you the reasons why he left the PDP?

No, but the understanding is quite clear. The understanding is that the procedure and process were going to compromise his ideals and because of that, he took a walk.

Now that the Labour Party is engulfed in a leadership crisis following a lawsuit by one Mr. Calistus Okafor, don’t you think the action will derail the Obi’s presidential project?

It cannot because it’s an action that took place after an event, the national convention to nominate the presidential candidate. As of the day of that event, the lawful people to conduct the primaries according to the guidelines and INEC position, were the current executive. However, if Mr. Okafor feels that he’s been short-changed one way or the other, he’s entitled to go to court but he cannot undo what has been done. So we don’t have any issues with anybody and the outcome of his court case will not affect the presidential candidate of the party.

Without any solid structure on the ground, do you see the possibility of Obi winning the presidential election?

The greatest criticism against the move is what you just said, there’s no structure. Even as at today, when we say structure, we are talking about the physical person in the constituency in which the election will take place. Labour Party is not too young a party. It was registered in 2006 and has been in existence for quite a while. They are well spread across the country but not to the extent of the PDP or the APC. The truth of the matter is that when people talk about political structure, you are actually referring to human beings, and the Labour Party as it is presently constituted has the greatest number of members even more than very well known political parties if combined or put together.

In Labour Party, you have the NLC, the TUC, the market women, the farmers, the artisans, the students, the professionals and the entire working class, and so on. That’s the ramification, the extent the Labour Party drives its strength. So what Peter Obi’s presence is doing is to attract the structure and its attraction to the youth is going to reawake the strength of the Labour Party, reinvigorate it and task its members to come in and take their position in the scheme of things.

So you are confident of victory?

I’m very sure we are going to win. It’s going to be a shock to Nigerians but I’m very sure we are going to win. I don’t see the PDP and the APC making headway.

Obi’s emergence has been described as a movement or revolution due to his massive followers and supporters on social media. How will you convert this social media support base to physical voters?

Yes, he has a massive following on social media, but his following and the political revolution that he’s leading presently is far beyond social media. It’s broken the bounds of what the new media is all about. Peter Obi today is the very essence of Nigerian politics. If you go to the market, church, mosque, or enter a taxi or a bus, everybody, farmers, religious leaders, is talking about Peter Obi. I just saw a tape where the young man is saying I’m going to follow the man who says he will move Nigeria from consumption to production and this boy will be about 14 years old. So if the message has got to that level, then you will know that this is beyond social media. Nigerians are now aware of what politics is going on. The dynamism of the youthful population and their strength and capacity in terms of electoral advantage is going to shock the country.

I’m telling you that between now and January next year, the Peter Obi movement will put together between 25 – 30 million people and I don’t see any existing political party that can top that. Nigerians both young and old, are tired of our political platforms that have been exchanging powers between the PDP and the APC and you know, the line between the two has actually disappeared. PDP today has picked Atiku as its flag bearer. Atiku had contested for presidency on the platform of the APC. Also, the chairman and secretary of APC were members of the PDP. So, sincerely speaking, we have gone full circle about these parties and the truth of the matter is that in terms of political relevance, the APC and the PDP have expired. And you know that nature abhors a vacuum, so the third force of young people will now have to take over to rescue the country.

If the APC fields a northerner like the PDP did, what implications will it have on your candidate and the party?

We do not mind whoever the APC fields. We are not worried about who the parties are fielding because we have a sellable candidate. We have a candidate that is adjudged to be the best in Nigeria currently. We have a currency that is comparable to none. Peter Obi, in terms of currency, is the sure bet that’s available politically in Nigeria today. It is impossible for any political party to produce any candidate that can match him in terms of performance and integrity. He has over proven that he’s a man that has integrity. In terms of antecedents, what he did in Anambra State is classic and exemplary. In terms of execution, knowledge and exposure especially in the economy, aspirant or candidate comes close to him. So, for Peter Obi, we are not worried about where other political parties pick their candidates from. We have more than 40m registered voters, who have become educated enough to know the difference between a good candidate and a bad one. Nigerians cannot forget so easily that they made a mistake recently, so most people have vowed that they would not make that mistake again this time around.

There’s this assertion that Peter Obi is not popular in the north. I don’t how true this is. In any case, how will you make Peter Obi popular in the north as in the south?

I rather put the question this way: why is Peter Obi popular in the south? Is it because he’s a southerner? No. It’s because his message is resonating with the problem the people have and they understand clearly that this gentleman has the answers to their problems. What makes him less popular in the north is that his message has not circulated and permeated the area. So our main job now is to spread the message across the entire north. The poverty in Nigeria is not tribal. There are poor people in the north and poor people in the south and they suffer the same thing. So, whether you are a northerner or a southerner, Christian or Moslem, bad economy resulting from bad governance must affect you.

How do you take this message to the north?

Peter Obi will not only be in Lagos and Abuja. Before the primaries, we were the first and probably the only one that completed the entire circle; that went to every state of the federation to meet the delegates. We are going to do the same thing, we are going to carry the message from one state to the other, we are going to do it. The good thing is that there’s time to do it. We have 7 to 8 months to do it before the election.

Will Peter Obi be willing to collapse his structure with other political parties like Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso’s NNPP to have a formidable structure?

Merging, cooperation, coalition, all those tendencies are possible. The goal is constant. We want Peter Obi to run the affairs of this country for now because he’s the best person right now to do it. He’s the one that has enough knowledge and experience and proven ability to physically manage our economy and our finances. So, we will do anything lawful and legal, we will make concession to bring in people, we are going to bring the biggest coalition ever before the election, you will see it.

How about the choice of running mate, have you chosen one?

No, we haven’t. We are not in a hurry because when you are talking about a coalition, you are looking at what other people are bringing and all that. It’s part of the concession we will make and the running mate will come from the north. That will also improve our presence in the north because once you have a running mate who’s a northerner, he understands the language of the people and can talk to his people.

Are you looking in the direction of Alhaji Kwankwaso for a running mate?

We are not looking in any direction yet, everything is open.

Obi said his manifesto would be published soon. What should we expect?

The theme of the manifesto that is coming out is changing the country from consumption to production, reducing poverty by pulling out a lot of people from the poverty, changing the attitude of governance from the elites collecting together to share what is not there, to encouraging people to create wealth, and leading and managing governance resources responsibly, transparently and honestly. Those are going to be the highlights of the manifesto. He’s going to be strong on education because that is the basis of growth and progress. He’s going to be very strong in agriculture too. Obi has gone all over the country talking about agriculture, talking about the potential we have in a country that is over one million square kilometers and yet, we are not exporting as much as countries that are not up to one-third of our size like Vietnam. So those are the things you can expect from the manifesto.

Funding is a major issue in election. Does the Labour Party have the financial war chest to compete with the PDP and APC?

No, we don’t have the financial muscle to compete with them but the Labour Party with Peter Obi has the potential to raise more money than the PDP and the APC put together. Within this country and globally, there are more than one million Nigerians who are interested enough in Nigeria’s matter to put a $100,000 and when you multiply it by one million, it will give you $100b. So we’ll win an election with $100b. It doesn’t matter what other parties have because we are not going to spend money to convert people to our side. We will only spend money to constitute structures, promote the ideals of the party and promote our message, and logistics. That’s all we need money for. We don’t need money to bribe voters and that’s where the old parties and politicians spend a huge chunk of their money. Our financial budgetary requirements are by far lower than the corrupt system being practised by the APC and the PDP.

So many Nigerians are volunteering their talents and expertise. How do you harness and harmonize these efforts to achieve the desired goal at the poll?

Our national secretariat will be open very shortly in Abuja. A directorate is going to be established to handle support groups. You have to harness them, put them together, coordinate them and concentrate their energy along the useful path to avoid duplication and unnecessary repetition and wastage. All these things will be done because we have enough experienced and knowledgeable people that will run the affairs.