A former minister of information and national orientation, Labaran Maku, has acknowledged that many people thought the “Obidient” movement and Peter Obi’s candidacy for president of the Labour Party (LP) was a joke.
When Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, entered the race as a third-force candidate, he shocked the country. The LP candidate, who has a sizable youth following who was dismissed as lacking in political structure, received over six million votes and won in 11 states to place third in the recently held election.
But when asked about the results of the 2023 elections on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Maku acknowledged that the opposition politicians never gave the LP candidate and his supporters a chance.
“What happened in the presidential election as you could see was that there was this wave of young people, the ‘Obidients’ that we all took for granted and we were thinking Peter Obi was a joke. Where would he go?” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said on the breakfast show today.
“So, both PDP and the APC, we were thinking ‘This man does not have structure. He will not be able to do so much’.”
He, however, maintained that young people proved them wrong and put up an unprecedented showing in the 2023 elections.
“But the young people seized the initiative from the politicians. And for the first time – what we saw in Nasarawa, Edo, several other places, and in Delta State where the PDP vice presidential candidate comes from – we saw that young people were serious about what they were doing and they took advantage of social media to project a programme which has shaken the nation.”
The PDP chieftain from Nasarawa State admitted that the party lost the presidential election in the state to LP but added that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)’s win in the governorship elections was faulty.
For him, the results of the governorship election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were concocted.
