•Says its booby trap to box him in
By Steve Oko
Major General Ijioma Nwokoro Ijioma (retd.), has cautioned the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, not to fall into any trick to lure him back to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, under any guise.
The retired General who gave the advice Thursday night while featuring on the July edition of Ikengaonline town hall meeting, said that Obi’s political interest would not be guaranteed in PDP as currently constituted. He warned him not to trust the PDP that idolises the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, whose loyalty for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is not in doubt.
Speaking on the topic “Ndigbo and the 2027 Politics”, Gen. Ijioma said the veiled overtures for Obi to return to PDP was suspicious and a booby trap to box him in and ultimately sabotage his presidential ambition. This is as he also cautioned Obi to be careful with his romance with the coalition African Democratic Congress, ADC, advising him to quit the coalition if he were not sure of getting its presidential ticket.
Gen. Ijioma maintained that Obi is arguably the only presidential aspirant in Nigeria today with the highest national appeal, insisting that he will win the presidential poll irrespective of his platform. He said that the Nigerian masses who were already frustrated by hunger and starvation following APC’s maladministration were ready to follow Peter Obi to any political party of his choice.
He said: “If I’m Peter Obi’s adviser, I will never advise him to go back to the PDP. With what is happening, the PDP is a carcass, and I believe that it is only vultures that feast on carcass. Returning to PDP with Wike hanging on there is risky. There’s no guarantee that his interest will not be undermined.
“Another important thing I want to say is this and Peter Obi should hear this: He should be very careful with the coalition. If he is not sure of getting the presidential ticket of the coalition ADC, he should leave them and join any other party at all where he will emerge as the presidential candidate. The masses of Nigeria who understand how important Peter Obi is, will rally round him in whichever party that he decides to go. He will win in 2027.
“Any party Peter Obi joins today, that party will become the rallying pot for the Nigerian masses who are at the receiving end of the bad governance by APC for the last 10 years. Nigerians have come to accept Peter Obi as a politician of integrity who is really out there to redress issues. The rest of the Nigerian masses, not the political elite, have come to accept Peter Obi as one that has the requisite qualification to lead Nigeria in 2027. I say this because I know that this present government, the APC government that started in 2015 has really plunged Nigeria into the abyss.
“The Nigerian people who are feeling the bite of the abysmal performance of the APC administration are yearning and calling for Peter Obi. I want to refer us to what the former President, Gen. Obasanjo said. He advised Nigerians to give Igbos a chance. Nigeria has been governed by Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba Presidents, even minority President, but they have not had truly a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.
“I urge Nigerians to rally around Peter Obi because Peter Obi has what it takes to take Nigeria out of the woods. It is only the Nigerian political elites and the Igbo political elites that are fighting against Peter Obi because of their own selfish interests. I want Ndigbo as a group of people, both at home and in the diaspora, to continue to rally around Peter Obi because I do not see any better candidate from all parts of Nigeria other than Peter Obi.”
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