Don’t Demarket Other Candidates, Group Admonishes Obi

SouthEast Renewal, a civil society organization, has cautioned former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, to desist from a campaign style that seeks to diminish other presidential aspirants from the southeast of the country.

SouthEast Renewal was reacting to Mr Peter Obi’s statement at the recent declaration of his intention to vie for PDP’s presidential ticket for the 2023 election.

Obi, had on Thursday, March 24, 2022, while informing some traditional rulers at Awka of his desire to seek his party’s ticket stated: “I’m the only person that can unite Nigeria”. 

In a release jointly signed by the President, Dr Silas Onyenwe and Secretary, Comrade Edozie Nwafor, SouthEast Renewal said Obi’s statement was “uncharitable and self – fanatical”. 

The release noted that it would have been enough for Obi to say that he could unite the country, without trying to diminish the other aspirants from the Southeast zone.

Onyenwe and Okafor emphasized that there were first class Presidential candidates of Igbo extraction in all the major political parties. 

“Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator  Chris Ngige and Governor Dave Umahi of the APC; former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the PDP; former Chief Judge of Anambra State, Professor Peter Umeadi of APGA and Professor Kingsley Moghalu of ADC all have what it takes to lead Nigeria. Each of them has the qualification to unite and develop Nigeria.”

SouthEast Renewal said the home truth was that “Mr Peter Obi had been a divisive candidate in his political career.” 

According to the regional body, “Obi was an alienated leader while in APGA. His aloof style of politics cost PDP the loss of Anambra governorship in 2017 with PDP members’ rejection of his selected flagbearer. He refused Willie Obiano’s plea for peace and spent the last eight years fighting the immediate past administration in Anambra State. How can someone not at peace with actors in his immediate environment bring peace to Nigeria?”

Reminding the former Governor that this same attitude of stigmatising fellow politicians was partly responsible for his impeachment in just six months of becoming Governor, the group tasked Obi to learn the lesson of reciprocity in politics. 
The leadership of SouthEast Renewal advised the former Governor to eschew false consciousness in his campaign and allow Nigerians decide for themselves the capability of other aspirants from the southeast.