EXCLUSIVE: Peter Obi To Return To PDP
Information reaching Ibom Focus says that Peter Obi To Return To PDP
The only condition Peter Obi will consider to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is if he will be given the presidential ticket, former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Akin Osuntokun has declared.
Obi, a former Anambra State Governor was the presidential candidate of the Labour in the 2023 general elections.
Obi had visited the former Vice President and presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, last week.
The visit had fuelled speculations of a possible alliance between both politicians or a merger of their political parties ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
It was reported on Tuesday that the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that Atiku and Obi were united by their mutual desperation to be “President of Nigeria and ignoble disdain for President Bola Tinubu’s focused and extraordinary commitment” to the transformation of the nation.
The former Vice President, had recently while speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, declared that if in 2027, his party, the PDP decided that it was the southeast’s turn and picked Obi as its candidate, he (Atiku) would readily offer his support.
Osuntokun, however, responding said that Peter Obi’s returning to the PDP would depend on circumstances, adding that with his large support base in the last general elections, the only chance of him accepting to join the PDP was if he would be offered the party’s presidential ticket.
He said, “Peter Obi going back to the PDP would have to depend on the circumstances and the assurances from the political godfathers of the PDP. The thing is that it’s unrealistic to expect someone who has run for the president to now accept to be a running mate for whoever assumes the superior position.”
According to him, about 90 percent of Nigerian youth support him, insisting that choosing to be a running mate to any other candidate would offend the youth demography.
“That’s because Obi has a unique political appeal among Nigerians. If it’s possible to do it the way they do in the United States by analyzing the demographic groups that support each candidate, we would find a situation in which Obi carried about 90 percent of the youth population. And if he chooses to be a running mate, those people are going to be disappointed and offended.”
He added, “The only way that Peter Obi could consider returning to the PDP is if he would be given the party’s presidential ticket. Otherwise, he would not embark on a futile exercise. Because if he becomes a running mate in PDP, he will lose a lot of his support. He would be demonised as a sellout.
“So I can’t see the point of his going back to the PDP other than being its presidential candidate.”
