The Director General of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe, has said the obidient movement has gone beyond ethnic and religious sentiments.
It has been reported that the supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, are known as ‘The Obidients”.
Speaking on Wednesday during the Pre-Campaign Press conference of the party in Abuja, Okupe said the movement is beyond religion and ethnicity bias, asking the opposing parties to stop linking the movement to a particular tribe or faith.
Okupe asserted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has shown that it lacks respect for Nigeria’s religious diversity following its choice of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
The former presidential aide added that the party cannot justify or defend such an action because it does not care about Nigeria and its citizens.
He said that the internal crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will continue to linger due to the fact the party failed to respect the zoning and rotation of power arrangement as enshrined in its very constitution.
Okupe added that the PDP will continue to face issues because its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, emerged from a skewed primary election.
He added that if there was a strict pre-qualification process, both the APC flagbearer, Bola Tinubu, and his PDP counterpart would have since been disqualified.
Okupe stated that the youths would decide the immediate future of the country, stressing both PDP and APC are expired commodities with defective structures.
He said, “I am not talking about the dubious nature of educational records, nor even allegations of foreign court certified criminal narcotic records, nor any basis of poor health, and not even of falsified or advanced age but I refer to the fundamental parameters of competence and character, where none of these other known candidates, measure up in any way to the sterling qualities of Peter Obi and Dr. Yusuf Datti-Ahmed.
Similarly, on the considerations of true nationalism, geographical equity and fairness of ticket, none of them come close.
The PDP candidate is a product of an unjust and dishonourable process that clearly violates the equitable rights of entire southern Nigeria and the desire for balance in presidential power, already enshrined in the constitution and history of that party which was shamelessly subverted by subterfuge, and indeed anything built on injustice, ungodliness and evil conspiracy, can never stand.
As for the APC, the presidential candidacy is fundamentally flawed through the adoption of a skewed and insensitive Muslim-Muslim ticket, despite all objections across religious lines in a highly religiously sensitive country like Nigeria and at a time where all reason, calls for maturity, fairness, equity, justice and balance for the good of the country.
Nigerian youth, by this new, unprecedented demonstration of political vibrancy, has signalled to the failing and fading established political order, and transactional political class, that they are tired of the leadership failure that has brought Nigeria, the giant of Africa, to her knees today.
The arrogant, corrupt and clearly selfish practices of this old-order politicians and their parties, who believe they can always buy their way into power, and always compromise every institution, have now been spotlighted and stand totally rejected by this new class of Nigerian voters.
The large crowds of highly disciplined, self-organised, self-funded, self-motivated and clearly trans-ethnic-politico-religious groups and vocal associations of youths simultaneously calling for a new political culture and new leadership personae, across all the country’s political regions, in a sustained, orderly but insistent manner, is a clear call and warning to us as a country to sit up, shape up and do what is right before it becomes too late.”
