THE Minister of Science and Technology, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said it will be a miracle of the century if the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi wins the 2023 presidential election.
The former senate minority leader made this known yesterday via Channels Television, when he featured on Political Paradigm.
Speaking during the programme, the one term speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) said Obi doesn’t have the necessary structure in place to secure victory.
His words: “What I see, with all due respect, is what you can call independent candidacy in Labour, and to the best of my knowledge, even in America, no independent candidate has ever won the presidency
“They can win in the senate or house of representatives but not in the presidential. So, it will be a miracle of the century.
“I won’t dismiss it (support for Peter Obi) but it doesn’t seem to me that it will be as such as would cause havoc in this system at the end of the day.
“This is because we do our checks on a regular basis. We look at the spread; we look at the capacity on the ground. You see, you cannot underrate the role of structures in politics and particularly in elections because this is the reality. There are many logistics involved in electioneering.”
Mamora also played down the support LP and Obi are getting from labour unions and youths, saying “The same way all these people are saying they will back Peter Obi is the same way they are saying they will back other candidates, especially those frontline candidates.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain further said that while he is not underrating other contenders in the presidential race, the party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, remains the best.
“I said with all due respect, no one should underrate anyone. In a contest, you don’t underrate anyone but with all due respect to all these frontliners, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Kwankwaso, of course, those are the faces we see when you tune into any channel,” he stated.
“So, you cannot underrate, but I am saying that in spite of that and with all due respect to other candidates, he (Tinubu) is still the number one candidate to beat. That’s the point I am making,” he added.
The former minister of state for health also said that notwithstanding the challenge the LP and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) poses to the APC and PDP, it won’t be enough for either of LP or NNPP to win the election.
“It is part of the growth in the system as far as I am concerned. But again, don’t forget that is just the way it is in all these other countries.
“Go to the UK. It is not as if you don’t have other parties but we’re talking of the Labour Party and the Conservatives, isn’t it? Go to America — we are talking about Democrats and the Republicans,” he said.
Meanwhile, Obi’s candidature has continued to dominate discussions on social media as the 2023 election draw closer.
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