Some insider’s details have emerged on the reasons why the former governor of Anambra State, and presidential aspirant, Peter Obi, dumped the country’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and as well withdrew from the party’s presidential race.
This is as a source knowledgeable about the party’s inside politicking said Obi left PDP after some governors elected on the platform of the party practically “ganged up” against him.
The source who spoke with the members of the press said Obi was forced out of the PDP following a high-wire game of intrigues, and conspiracy.
Obi, a two-time Governor of Anambra state, on Tuesday broke the country’s political space with his decision to quit the PDP.
The former governor in a letter addressed to the PDP national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, hinged the decision on ‘recent developments’ in the party.
“It has been a great honour to contribute to nation-building efforts through our party. Unfortunately, recent developments within our party make it practically impossible to continue participating and making such constructive contributions,” Obi said in the letter.
Revealing further details, the source said power brokers in the PDP had indicated that they might not cede the presidency to the South-East. This, according to the source made Obi to settle for a Vice presidential ticket, just like 2019. However, it was never going to be as some governors in the party said one of them must be the Vice presidential candidate.
According to the source, Obi, after noticing the developments then argued that when he was the vice-presidential candidate of the party in 2019, his region, the South-East zone contributed more votes to the PDP than the North-East, the zone of the presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
In 2019, with Obi on the ballot as running mate to Atiku, the PDP garnered 1,693,485 votes (75 per cent) from the five states of the South-East; and 1,255,357 votes (27.5 per cent) from the North-East.
However, the arguments, it was reported, fell on the deaf ears of the PDP’s stakeholders, leading to Obi’s decision to dump the party.
“Obi was hoping to emerge as the running mate to Atiku again since the PDP, from all indications, is not ready to cede the presidency to the South-East.
“However, most of the PDP governors said they will back Atiku if he makes one of them his running mate. This led to a highwire conspiracy against Obi in the PDP. So he had to look elsewhere to pursue his aspirations,” the source was quoted to have said.
Also, the Director-General of the Peter Obi Campaign Organisation, Doyin Okupe, while speaking with the Arise TV on Thursday had revealed that Obi decided to exit PDP because of the intrigues and stance of some stakeholders in the party.
Okupe said Obi’s decision to quit the PDP was because the recent developments have indicated that the primaries of the party has become ‘transactional’.
“I’ve been in this game for 42 years, and I understand it, like the back of my hand. This is not a game to play with? I mean, like if some stakeholders come together and say no matter who is contesting the President must come from this particular group of persons and they have powers to get it done. What can we do about that?,” Okupe had said.
However, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state while reacting to the development, said Obi does not stand a chance of winning the party’s presidential primary if he had remained in the PDP.
According to him, Obi had not won a single election since he left the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA), the party under which he became governor.
He said, “So, Peter Obi leaving the party is not surprising to me. I know and he knows that there was no way he would have won the presidential primary. Forget about what his (campaign) DG, Doyin Okupe, said. How would he have won? I went to Anambra and told them (delegates) that, ‘don’t waste your vote.’ Since Peter Obi left APGA then as a governor, he has never won election. That is not even the issue.”
