The New Nigeria Peoples Party’s Presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has come under fire from the Labour Party’s Presidential Campaign Council on Wednesday for criticising Peter Obi, the LP candidate, at Chatham House in London.
In his speech titled “Nigeria’s 2023 Election: Service Delivery and Policy Alternatives,” Kwankwaso claimed that the Labour Party was founded on ethnic and religious feelings and that its only purpose was to create excitement.
The ex-Kano State Governor, according to the LP Presidential Campaign Council’s spokesman Yunusa Tanko, missed the point by failing to recognise
Obi’s quality.
Speaking to The Punch, Tanko Said: “That is a wrong perception. These things can also be said of Kwankwaso and his party. If it is about ethnicity, Kwankwaso is also from a particular ethnic group. If it is about religion, he practises a particular faith too. Where Kwankwaso falls short is that neither he nor his party has the contents that our party and presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, have. We have content and most Nigerians know this.
“Our candidate was the only one who came out to say, ‘don’t vote for me because I come from a particular ethnic group and don’t vote for me because I practice a particular religion, but vote for me because I have the capacity, character, integrity and compassion to make this country work.’ These attributes were reechoed by the Emir of Kano who spoke in Hausa language telling everyone that Peter has all it takes to govern this country when we visited Kano to interface with Nigerians over there,” he stated.
Akin Osuntokun, Director General of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, said in a separate speech that if any Nigerian leader merits an ethnic label, it would be the NNPP candidate.
