Okenyi Kenechi
Doyin Okupe, the director-general of Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate’s campaign organisation has said that the talks for an alliance between Labour Party and the New Nigerian Peoples Party ended over four weeks ago.
Okupe said that since then, the NNPP has been trying to benefit from Obi’s rising popularity.
He stressed that the constant attack on Obi’s support base by established politicians is due to their narrow-mindedness.
Okupe said the politicians didn’t see the surge with which the movement had taken over the country coming.
Speaking on Channels TV Politics Today, he said that the established politicians will not recover from the shock for a very long time.
Speaking on the claims by the presidential candidate of NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso that the North will not vote for Obi because he is an Igbo man, Okupe said that Kwankwaso portrayed the North as a people who do not have a mind of their own or understand politics.
Okupe noted that by that statement, Kwankwaso manifestly showed that the country which is led by the youth has left him behind.
On the alliance between both parties, Okupe said that the died four weeks ago after the NNPP said they must produce the president.
He said: “I asked them if it was fair for a president from the Northwest who is finishing his tenure to have another from the same region replace him, and they said that there was nothing wrong with it.
“He belongs to my generation of politicians and we have a very narrow vision. For a leader like Kwankwaso to come to national television to play a very dangerous ethnic card, shows that his mind is restricted.
“Kwankwaso is in the habit of whenever he is talking, it’s always North, North, North. This is a man that is electorally restricted to Kano. He is judging everyone in the North with what he sees in the Kwankwasiya movement in Kano.
“He is giving the impression that Northerners do not understand politics or have minds of their own”.
Speaking on Obi’s running mate, he said that Senator Yusuf Datti-Ahmed is being considered alongside others. He added that they’re looking for a young, vibrant and intellectually sound Northerner to Obi’s running mate.
