Nigerians should stop looking for consensus candidate and look for “problem solvers’’ as presidential materials for 2023.
Peter Obi, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential aspirant made the declaration at Abakaliki on Tuesday, while addressing newsmen during his consultation with PDP faithful in Ebonyi.
His advice is coming just as another chieftain of PDP, Olabode George says the party will be “roundly defeated” in the 2023 presidential election if zoning is jettisoned.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra and vice presidential candidate said,
“Nigerians want a person who will start solving the myriad of problems facing the country.
“They want someone who will secure lives and property; make the country productive; pull the citizens out of poverty, among other capabilities.
“This is not an issue of delegates because those with large numbers of delegates are still affected by the nation’s problems,’’ he said.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), Obi stressed that the sentiment of consensus candidate should not be brought to the front burner at this time in the nation’s political history.
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He said the geo-political zone of a candidate should not also amount to much as “what Nigeria needs is to salvage the country.
“It is important to consider where people come from in a diverse country such as ours for equity’s sake.
“The country, however, needs someone now who will start creating wealth to make the economy viable.
“I can fix this country having a record of being a trader, of operating in the corporate world, and being a governor among other antecedents,’’ he said.
Obi clarified issues concerning his earlier support for fellow aspirant, Alhaji Abubakar, whom he described as a unifier.
“The PDP has credible aspirants who can lead the country and solve its problems,’’ Obi stressed.
But PDP is yet to make a decision on which region of the country will produce the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, as the decision might be known on Thursday.
The development has however spurred polarising opinions among stakeholders of the party, with some backing the zoning of the presidential slot to the south while others are calling for the ticket to be thrown open to all regions of the country.
Speaking in a chat with Arise TV on Tuesday, George warned that failure to zone the PDP presidential ticket means the party is “looking for serious trouble” in 2023.
He said the PDP must “embrace equity, justice and fairness”, adding that throwing the presidential ticket open will “be doing incalculable damage to the psychological minds of the majority of people who are not card-carrying members of the party”.
“If the party decides that, I can emphatically say we are looking for serious trouble and we will be roundly defeated. A warning shot and a good lesson for us to think about,” the PDP chieftain said.
“Let’s think about how this country can grow. Turn by turn Nigeria limited, what’s wrong in doing that. Like I said, it’s not a 100 metres dash race but a continuum. Let there be equity, justice and fairness.
“Let’s not go through that route because we will be doing incalculable damage to the psychological minds of the majority of people who are not card-carrying members of the party.”
