Obi, Now National Project, Says Ex-House Leader As Saraki Admits, LP, Our Challenge

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2 years ago

Erstwhile Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, has welcomed the defection of the Deputy Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Dr Auta Zankai from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Labour Party(LP) as a breakthrough for the party’s presidential candidate, Mr.Peter Obi.

Arigbe-Osula, a one-time associate of President Muhammadu Buhari said the defection of Zankai and another incumbent member, Suleiman Dabo, Zaria State Constituency from APC to LP has proved to skeptics that Peter Obi is now a national project, according to Thisdaylive.

Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party’s Nikola Saraki has admitted that Obi’s Labour Party is their challenge.

With less than a few weeks to the 2023 presidential election,

Saraki, former Senate President, who expressed optimism that his candidate, Atiku Abubakar would win in the presidential race when he appeared on the Arise Television’s Morning Show revealed that Peter Obi’s Labour Party (LP) is his party’s only challenge in the South-East.

He however insisted that the PDP will win four political zones – North-West, North-East, South-South and North-Central during the election.

Despite the crisis in the party with Nyesome Wike’s integrity group, Saraki said,

“South-South is a strong PDP area. We will do very well in South-South, South-East, the challenge we have there, of course, is Labour,” Saraki said.

“But we will still do well in the South-East and take our 25 per cent. We will do well in North Central, we will do well in North-West and North-East.

“We need four zones. By the time you have four zones, you will win the election.

“The four zones that we will win are North-west, North-east, South-south and North-central, and we will take our 25 per cent more than 24 states. There is no doubt about that,” he added.

But in Kaduna state, the heartbeat of the monolithic North, the defection of Dr. Zankai and Hon Dabo to Labour Party was announced last Thursday.

According to Arigbe-Osula, “For several of us who were quick to see the Obi-Datti presidential aspiration as the answer to years of leadership deficit that Nigeria has for long suffered, this news is indeed cheering. It is a rebuff to the claim that Obi cannot win in the north.

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“That puerile argument projects the claim that Northerners who have suffered like many others under the present administration love the yoke that has been imposed on them. That is a lie and the fact that the deputy speaker and a member of the House in the ancient capital of the North have buckled is an indication that the message is making progress.

“I enjoin other Northerners and indeed, all other Nigerians who have heard the message of liberty to shake off the yoke as represented by the APC and the PDP and join the moving train as led by Obi and Datti to put Nigeria on the path of progress.”