The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has hinted on his choice of running mate.
Obi, who spoke on Wednesday, while featuring on Arise TV Morning Show, revealed that he preferred a younger person as vice-presidential candidate.
The former Anambra State governor said that Nigeria is currently in a coma and to survive, need the right person to revive the country irrespective of where the person comes from.
Obi said that he would rather have a younger person who has something to offer to complement his ticket than have a recycled old hand who had been in the government before now.
There have been rumours on social media that he had picked a businessman and politician, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, as his vice-presidential candidate, but responding to that, the LP presidential candidate said that though consultations are ongoing, he was yet to pick a running mate.
Obi said, “We’re talking to a quite number of people and Baba-Ahmed is a capable hand and I wish he is the one. But I wish I can work with somebody who is more younger.
“I prefer younger people with fresh ideas who have a lot to offer rather than recycling old hands. I want a competent person and I am building a formidable team.
“I want people who can look me in the eye and disagree with me during cabinet meetings. People who have their own minds and ideas. If you agree with me in three meetings then you are gone because that means you don’t have your own ideas. I want people and cabinet members who can say ‘Mr. President, you are wrong.”
When asked to disclose when to expect his manifesto, he said he had practiced all that he is preaching and the records are there for Nigerians to verify.
He asked, “How can I hire professors to write or draft policy documents for me that I don’t even believe in?”
“I have replicated all that I am promising Nigerians before. It would be the same thing. What I did in Anambra and what I achieved is what we will replicate on a larger scale. We want Nigeria to become the engine of production,” he added.
On the campaign of calumny on social media, he accused his opponents of hiring some people online to malign his campaign team by infiltrating his core supporters and spreading falsehoods online.
He, meanwhile, said that despite the campaigns of calumny online and rumours that northerners won’t vote for him during the 2023 election, he believed that Nigerians and people from the north will vote for him based on competence.
He said, “I am contesting to be Nigeria’s president to solve the country’s problem and not because I am from a part or region of the country.
“We need to do things that will bring people hope. Nigerians must be proud of this country and that is what I planned to do.”
Asked how he would respond to the comment made by Rabiu Kwakwanso that the north will not vote for an Igbo man in 2023, Obi replied, “The comment by the elder brother Kwankwaso is the reason why we have 100 million Nigerians living in poverty, 18 million Nigerian children out of school and about 52% of Nigerians either unemployed or under employed , because rather than vote for competent leaders, we will rather vote for incompetence due to a primitive belief of religion and ethnicity.
“Tell me, today you can’t travel from abuja to kaduna by road or rail, is it because someone from the south east is in charge ? You can’t travel to Minna by road, is because someone from the south east is in charge? Yesterday we had an attack by bandits on the presidential convoy, in Katsina, is it because someone from the south east is in charge? Show me where people are prospering in the north or south? What we have consistently done in this country is to hire vehicle drivers to fly airplanes as pilots instead of hiring qualified pilots.
“We have a huge problem and if you don’t know, this country will soon default on their debt servicing, schools are shut down, insecurity is everywhere, Nigeria is in a coma and when you are in a coma all you want is to survive, irrespective of where the surgeon who will keep you alive comes from “