NIGERIA – 2023: Peter Obi emerges Labour Party presidential candidate

He emerged at Labour Party’s Convention and presidential primary held in Asaba, Delta State.

Earlier at the convention, Professor Pat Utomi stepped down for Obi.

Utomi announced that Obi is an aspirant with the capacity to effect the needed change in the Nigerian system.

Also, another aspirant, 45-year-old Joseph Faduri stepped down for the former governor. Obi pulled 96 out of 97 votes casted.

Accepting the party’s Presidential nomination, he thanked all other aspirants for stepping down for him and all the party’s delegates who made his emergence possible.

He said a journey of building a better country has just commenced and urged his supporters to ensure they get their Permanent Voters Card, PVCs, ahead of the elections.

He said, “Our governance mission will be twin-tracked. Secure Nigeria in every ramification: national security, human security“We will also seek to unite our nation by pulling our people out of poverty, and creating a new sense of nationalism and patriotism, food security and tackling insecurity created by unemployment.

“We will also seek to unite our nation by pulling our people out of poverty, and creating a new sense of nationalism and patriotism.

“Nigeria shall rise again: and her people will be proud to claim ownership of her patrimony. Doing so is in our collective national interest.”

He appealed to every Nigerian to support his candidature so as to steer ship of the nation on a new course.

Obi assured of a prosperous nation if elected the next president of Nigeria.

According to him, ‘I want to talk with you about my hope for the future, my faith in every Nigerian, and my vision of the kind of country we can build, together. I salute the good men who are out championing on this course to take back our country.’

Mr Obi, left the Peoples Democratic Party for the Labour Party because the former did no longer align with his political values.

Obi, who was a former governor of Anambra State, was also the party’s running mate to PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in the 2015 presidential election.

Until his resignation, he was one of the 15 aspirants vying for the presidential ticket of the PDP, of which the party’s primary is expected to hold on May 28 and May 29 in Abuja

Obi has consistently maintained that he was not desperate to become the president of Nigeria but to offer solutions to problems bedevilling the country.

I’m not desperate to be President or anything,” he said. “I’m desperate to see Nigeria work. Especially for the youths of this country.

“I’ve moved to where I think the process might allow me.

“I would rather lose doing the right thing than win doing the wrong thing. My politics have been consistent in character and integrity.”