- Warns that if the Muslim-Muslim ticket succeeds, “the option is to pack out and leave Nigeria”
By Okey Muogbo
Chairman of Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Bitrus Pogu, says the leading Presidential Candidate for the 2023 general election, Mr Peter Obi, has been described as best of the presidential candidates in terms of competence and national balancing.
Dr Pogu said on Thursday in Abuja at the presentation of a book on Peter Obi that the Labour Party’s (LP) Presidential Candidate was also rated the best Presidential candidate on other areas such as character, integrity and antecedence.
Pogu, who was the Chief Presenter of the book titled “The Challenges of Good Governance and Leadership in Nigeria: The Peter Obi Factor,” said that on the issue of national balancing also, Obi satisfies regional, sub-regional, religious and other considerations.
He dismissed the tickets of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as that of the other parties as being below that of Peter Obi and his running mate, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed.
The leader of the Middle Belt of Nigeria insisted that the election of a South Easterner as President next year would engender Justice, fairness and inclusion in the Nigerian polity.
Pogu, who wondered why the APC should present a Presidential candidate for the 2023 contest because of its poor performance since 2015 also warned that the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket posed present and future dangers to Nigeria.
Represented by Comrade Lanre Obafemi, the Middle Belt leader warned: “APC instead of apologizing is sponsoring candidates and even same-faith ticket. If the same-faith succeeds, it will be very dangerous to remain Christians.
“The option is to pack out and leave Nigeria.
“It is in the strategic interest of the Middle Belt to back the South East Presidency so that the Middle Belt would have a better chance producing a President for Nigeria in the future.
“The South East candidate we are supporting, Mr Peter Obi, is better than all the other candidates.”
He added that Obi’s election would also satisfy the yearnings of Nigeria’s youths as expressed during the “ENDSARS” protest.
In his opening remarks, Chairman of the occasion, Professor Haruna Daban said Obi’s candidacy was the only opportunity for Nigeria to celebrate again given the sufferings in the country presently.
“We are at the lowest. We are at the top of everything terrible – poverty, hunger, terrorism, economic stagnation but Peter Obi is the silver lining for Nigeria.” he insisted.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Book and President of the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), Professor Uzodinma Nwala said he never knew that the Peter Obi phenomenon would ever happen in his lifetime hence he wrote the Book to landmark it.
He disclosed that both Peter Obi and Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State were his students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka but quickly remarked that the two men are “two different individuals.”
According to him, the ADF did an industrial tour of the South East and that it was the tour OF the Foundation that exposed the wonderful achievements by Peter Obi during his tenure as Governor of Anambra State.
Describing the Obi Presidential campaign phenomenon as God-sent, Professor Nwala said, “once in a while, God presents a people with things like Peter Obi.”
The Book Reviewer and LP Senatorial Candidate for FCT/Abuja, Mrs Heeba Ireti Kingibe, said the Book tries to establish a nexus between the Obi phenomenon as Governor of Anambra State and Obi phenomenon as a Presidential candidate of the LP now.
According to her, Obi left legacies in Anambra State that are verifiable and that the love the people of Anambra State showed to their former Governor is the love the people of Nigeria are now showing the LP Candidate.
She then urged Nigerian voters to vote for Obi and the Labour Party in next year’s general elections.