Obi group taunts Atiku about his previous electoral failures

The former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has drawn the ire of the Peter Obi Support Network (POSN) over his blistering attack against the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in a recent interview.

The group in a statement by its spokesperson, Sani Altukry, mocked Atiku as “seventh time presidential aspirant,” The Punch reports.

How it started: Recall that Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed during an interview with Arise TV News that the former governor of Anambra State stood no chance of winning the 2023 presidential election because the Labour Party didn't have any governor nor National Assembly members elected on its platform.

Obi group replies: The POSN via the statement titled, ‘Atiku Abubakar takes Nigerian masses for granted’, said the former Vice President in the "recorded interview", gave unsolicited and clearly incorrect political permutation on who could win elections and who couldn't win.

It said, “The seventh time presidential aspirant reportedly claimed that today’s most popular presidential candidate, Peter Obi, cannot.

“Unfortunately, the former Vice President based his entire permutation on the assumed influence of corruption promoting and vote-buying mercenaries euphemistically called political structure, and failed to consider the unassailable powers of the masses of Nigeria, who actually are the most powerful force in a democracy and the key determinants of election victory.

“As every political philosopher knows: sovereignty resides with the people! Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s assertion speaks to the illusions of the fascist school of thought that believes that the masses do not matter and erroneously believes that the masses cannot think for themselves.

“In essence, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is saying that Nigerians are some kind of slaves who cannot take a political decision on their own, except as imposed on them by their slave masters.

“This erroneous idea belongs to the past, and so we assure the former Vice President and those of his class who hold such derogatory perception of Nigerians that a new Nigeria is here and Nigerians are ready to take their destiny in their own hands.

“The Peter Obi candidacy is not a mere political project but a national movement for the reawakening of Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands and break the chains and shackles for which they are derided as being ‘sub-citizens’ with the so-called structure being the deciders of where their votes shall go.

“We are banking on the votes of the millions of dissatisfied but genuinely patriotic Nigerians who want to see a truly independent, prosperous and thriving democratic Nigeria. And every day, as we move from community to community, from market to market, from mosque to mosque and from church to church, we are encouraged by the passion displayed by these Nigerians for a new, working and productive Nigeria under the leadership of Mr. Peter Obi and Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.

“We expected that the former Vice President, having confirmed the undeniable competence, integrity and wide acceptability of Mr. Peter Obi, that he would demonstrate his true love for Nigeria and a genuine desire for her progress by dropping his ambition to be President of Nigeria and endorse Mr. Peter Obi who has shown practical readiness and preparedness to retrieve Nigeria from the precipice of total collapse.

“We trust that Alhaji Abubakar will read the handwriting on the wall and do the needful.”

Atiku's comments during the interview have continued to generate reactions with the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also releasing a statement to counter some of the claims made by the former president.