A former presidential media aide, Reno Omokri has submitted that of the three major presidential candidates for 2023, only the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar is a national candidate.
According to Omokri who spoke on Wednesday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu as well as his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi are regional candidates whose ambitions have ethnic, religious or regional colourations made the declaration while speaking about the 2023 election during an interview with Channels Television.
He said: “Right now, we have three major candidates; Atiku Abubakar is the only national candidate. If you talk about Peter Obi, he is a regional candidate.”
Peter Obi, Labour Party Are IPOB Compliant
He argued that Obi and the Labour Party have shown where their allegiance lies by obeying sit-at-home orders given by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the southeast instead of the Nigerian constitution.
He said; “IPOB had a sit-at-home yesterday. Obidents and Peter Obi who normally have things to do in the south-east every day, they obeyed that IPOB sit-at-home and this is not the first time.
Previously, IPOB’s sit-at-home was on Mondays. Obidents obeyed and Peter Obi himself obeyed it. They never had anything on a day IPOB held their sit-at-home. This shows that they are obeying IPOB rather than our constitution.
Tinubu Pursuing South West Agenda
Quoting the viral ’emi lokan’ phrase by Tinubu, Omokri argued further that the APC candidate is seeking the presidency only because he thinks its the turn of the southwest, not because he has a national intersts at heart.
According to him, “If you talk about someone like Bola Tinubu, we saw it on TV and it went viral. In Ogun, when he was giving his basis for contesting this election, he said, in Yoruba, that it is the turn of the south-west. That is the basis — it is already a regional basis.”
Atiku Is The Only Unifier
Omokri submitted that the PDP candidate is the only one with a national agenda that has no ethnic, religious or regional bias.
“Our candidate is the only candidate that is not coming from a regional, ethnic, and religious basis. He is saying ‘I am a unifier’. If you look at him, that man is ready. This is a national leader, who is ready to go,” he said.
