The Executive Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, has launched another attack on the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, by saying he cannot win the 2023 presidential election.
Soludo said Peter Obi was playing a game with his election bid and added that he does not have the required structure in place to win the Presidency under the Labour Party platform.
Soludo stated these in an article on Monday, titled, ‘History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1).’
It should be recalled that Soludo said during a recent interview on Channels TV ‘Politics Today’ that the investments in Anambra State credited to Peter Obi were worth “next to nothing.’’
Soludo’s criticism of his predecessor in Anambra State brewed a series of backlashes from Obi’s supporters, especially on social media.
Obi governed Anambra State between 2006 and 2014 under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance before he switched to the Peoples Democratic Party, and later the Labour Party.
Soludo made it known that some individuals, who were angered by his comments, had attacked him and his family.
He said there were suggestions that the recent attack where five security personnel died in his community, Isuofia, in the Aguata Local Government Area of the state, was perpetrated by those provoked by his comment on Obi.
While classifying the attacks on him as a show of desperation, and intolerance, he remarked that the attempt to bully everyone that expresses the slightest of dissent was disgraceful.
Soludo further noted the attack on the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Enugu Ecclesiastical Province, Dr Emmanuel Chukwuma, by supporters of Obi commonly known as ‘Obidients.’
He described the attempt to muscle out those who were not in support of Obi’s presidential ambition as tyranny, saying that this attitude might put the future political and economic interests of the Igbos in danger, if not checked.
While he acknowledged the anger of some youths in urban cities and the Diaspora over the country’s trajectory or with the candidates of the major parties, Soludo lectured his adversaries on the tenets of democracy by stating that the minority would have their say, but the majority their way.
According to him, translating anger and social media agitation into political outcomes requires enormous work.
While weighing Obi’s chances in the forthcoming election, he said: “Let’s be clear: Peter Obi knows that he can’t and won’t win. He knows the game he is playing, and we know too, and he knows that we know.
“The game he is playing is the main reason he didn’t return to APGA. The brutal truth (and some will say, God forbid) is that there are two persons/parties seriously contesting for president: the rest is exciting drama!
“That many Americans may not like the fact that Joe Biden (79 years) and Donald Trump (76 years) are two frontrunners for president in their parties does not remove the fact that if both of them emerge as candidates, definitely one of them will be president in 2024.
“As my brother, I wish him well and even pray for him. I told him during his courtesy call that my prayer is that he or Prof Umeadi of APGA would win, why not?
“That is from my heart, but I also told him that my head and facts on the ground led me to know that its probability is next to zero (what I cannot say before you, I won’t say behind you).’’
While stating that Obi might not come third in the race, Soludo argued that the LP lacked the structure to win the presidential election in 2023.
He said: “So, I already told him my opinion. As my brother, I wish him well and even pray for him. Indeed, there is no credible pathway for him near the first two positions, and if care is not taken, he won’t even be near the third position.
‘’Analysts tell him you don’t need “structure” to win. Fantasy! Of course, LP won governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun on social media and via phantom polls, while getting barely 2,000 votes on ground.’’
He conceded that Obi would get some votes in his home state of Anambra, but remarked that this would not take him anywhere.
He said: “Of course, Peter Obi will get some votes, and may probably win in Anambra State— as ‘home boy’. But Anambra is not Nigeria. If he likes, I can even campaign for him but that won’t change much. From internal state-by-state polling available to me, he was on course to get 25 per cent in five states as of August this year. The latest polling shows that it is down to four states, and declining.’’
Soludo talked about the failure of the Labour Party to present candidates for the two chambers of the National Assembly in Lagos and joked that he would have given Obi money if he were the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for making his pathway to victory easier.
He stated: “Not even in Lagos State (supposed headquarters of urban youths) where the Labour Party could not find candidates to contest for House of Reps or Senate.
“The polls also show that he is taking votes away mostly from the PDP. Indeed, if I were Asiwaju Tinubu, I would even give Peter Obi money as someone heading one of the departments of his campaign because Obi is making Tinubu’s pathway to victory much easier by indirectly pulling down.’’
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