The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has urged his supporters popularly known as ‘Obidients’, to vote for candidates with character, competence, capacity, and compassion in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial elections across Nigeria.
Naija News reports that the former governor of Anambra State made the plea during an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday.
Explaining why LP did not produce governorship candidates in most of the states in the forthcoming governorship election, Peter Obi said many people did not believe in the party.
However, LP governorship candidates are considered ‘first-class candidates’ in a few states that believed in the movement.
Peter Obi further urged ‘Obidients’ to support LP’s adopted candidates and good candidates from other political parties, adding it must not be LP at all times.
He said: “Nigerian politics has been largely transactional. When we started the Obidients movement people didn’t believe what we were trying to do. The consequence is that we didn’t have candidates in most states.
“Because being a traditional thing, people like to be where things are shared. So nobody believed that a party without a councillor or local government chairmen can just rise up and become something. So we didn’t have candidates in most places.
“Few places we were able to have candidates, I can say, were first-class candidates. In some places[where we don’t have candidates], we’ll work with some good candidates. In the Southeast, we only have candidates in two states.
“We’re urging people to support [Labour Party’s adopted candidates] where we’re going to have partnerships like in Cross River State, where we have someone like Prof Sandy Onor of the PDP, we consider him an excellent candidate.
“For me, it’s about having competent, credible people who have proven integrity that can do well. We’re not saying it must be the Labour Party always. Where we think we have good people we’ll support them. It must not be [Labour Party] but wherever there is a better candidate. It’s time we build this institution and ensure we do the right thing. For me, I want people to indicate places where we have good candidates and we’ll go and support them.”
