A lawmaker for Borno South Senatorial District in the 9th National Assembly, Ali Ndume, stated that the Labour Party’s (LP) performance in the general elections of 2023 demonstrated that youths and the middle class were growing weary of the older generation, which has held power for decades.
Ndume, a guest on Sunday Politics on Channels Television, added that LP’s performance in the recently held elections exceeded his expectations.
Ndume, the Senate Committee on Army’s chairman, has served in the National Assembly for 20 years. The leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said he never imagined Peter Obi, the candidate for the Labour Party, would receive more than six million votes at the election which took place a few months ago.
Asked if the outcome of the polls fitted his expectations, Ndume said, “Yeah, but there were surprises in some places – Lagos, (and the) South-East. The performance of LP actually is above my expectation.”
Senator Ali Ndume says Labour Party performed beyond his expectations in the 2023 elections and that Peter Obi’s outing surprised him. He believes it is a sign that youths are tired of the older order. #SundayPolitics#CTVTweets pic.twitter.com/3ZlK4Z8QWl
— Channels Television (@channelstv) April 2, 2023
Asked that he never thought that Peter Obi could pull such strings, Ndume said, “Yeah, even in the general elections all over, especially. He (Obi) had six million votes.
“It goes to tell something that people don’t talk about: and that is to say that the signs are out there that the middle income group or social group and the youths are getting tired of the – do I even include myself? — upper level: people in their 70s and 80s who have been in the corridors of power since they were in their 30s.”
At the February 25 poll, APC’s Bola Tinubu, 70, came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and secured significant numbers in several other states to claim the highest number of votes — 8,794,726, almost two million votes more than his closest rival — former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku, 76, who has now run for president six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while the LP candidate (Obi), who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented finished the race with 6,101,533.
