End alliance talks with Kwankwaso, support group tells Obi

The Peter Obi support group has called for an urgent halt to any discussions on an alliance between the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

Although the NNPP had said it is in talks with the LP on the possibility of an alliance, Rabiu Kwankwaso, NNPP presidential candidate, has maintained that he will not withdraw his presidential bid.

In a statement issued on Monday, Onwuasoanya Jones, spokesman of the Peter Obi support group, said the need to end any such discussions is necessary since Kwankwaso has said he will not step down.

“It has therefore become pertinent to advise the leadership of the LP to immediately call off any discussions with the NNPP, on the issue of forming an alliance between them,” it reads.

“The NNPP and her candidate have consistently displayed a most unfortunate insensitivity to the aspirations and desires of long-suffering Nigerians for a working, united and equitable Nigeria and have show themselves as being incapable and unready to support or participate in the process of electing a President that will make this happen in 2023.

“Following his recent outing on Politics Today aired on Channels Television, all doubts have been erased that the presidential candidate of the fledgling NNPP, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwanso, is not ideologically inclined to Mr Peter Obi or the Labour Party, especially on the key issues driving the former Anambra governor’s aspiration to the presidency.

“His Excellency, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso, has regrettably manifested a most distasteful understanding of the Nigerian situation, as he advertised himself as primarily hinging his aspiration to the presidency on the basis of where he comes from, rather than where he wants to take Nigeria to, by arguing that his candidacy is propelled by the North rather than by Nigerians and also emphasising on our ethnic differences rather than blunting them.

“We should understand that Dr. Kwankwanso sharing a ticket with Peter Obi will alienate genuine Nigerian patriots who have bought into the Peter Obi candidacy out of their conviction that it is a unifying, ideas driven and masses propelled pan Nigerian project.

“By coming on television, even while the alliance talks are yet to be finalised, to categorically foreclose the chances of pairing with Mr Peter Obi as running mate, Dr. Kwankwanso has shown himself as coming to this alliance negotiations with a closed mindset and as a self-centered manipulator rather than being open to superior ideas, logics and credible electoral and political data or having the slightest pretext to patriotism.”