Even though he still belongs to the nation’s largest opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, a senior party official has announced that he is “Obidient.”
According to Channels Television, Ogbeide Ifaluyi-Isibor supported Peter Obi, the Labour Party‘s presidential candidate, over Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s nominee.
“I’m a member of the PDP and glad to be a member of the PDP but I am one that is very ‘Obidient’,” Ifaluyi-Isibor said on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily.
Ifaluyi-Isibor, Director of Mobilization for the Nigeria Diaspora Youth Coalition for Peter Obi, declared that he is not swayed by party allegiance and that he is not have to be a member of the Labour Party in order to support its presidential candidate.
The former representative from Edo Central claimed that the APC and the government at the center took the people for granted and that Nigerians are tired and dissatisfied and that things cannot carry on as they are.
Ifaluyi-Isibor noted that Peter Obi is the “poster boy for the revolution” for a new order.
‘Obidient’ is a sobriquet coined and adopted by followers of Obi to show their support for the 2023 presidential ambition of the 61-year-old.
Asked whether his action translates to anti-party or not, the Edo-based politician said, “My loyalty is first to my conscience, then to my nation, then to any other engagement which includes the political party.
“Being a member of the PDP, I am participating in all the electoral processes and I was more or less the spokesperson of the PDP in 2015 when we had that election.
“So, I have been a major player in the PDP but the development of Nigeria, the salvation that Nigeria needs is not vested in a political party any longer. You have people who are members of the PDP, members of the APC, and members of all kinds of political parties who support Mr Peter Obi because it transcends the political parties; we are trying to save our lives and not to save the political parties.”
The PDP member said those who say Obi’s support base only exists on social media are afraid.
He said though he backed former Vice-President Atiku in the 2019 presidential election, he switched to support Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, for the 2023 presidency because of his track records.
“We cannot continuously pretend that all is well and because I am a member of the PDP, then whoever the PDP candidate is, then you must support. That is not how democracy plays out in other developed economies. There are members of the Democrat Party who support Republican candidates and vice-versa. So, it is about the capacity, the competence and the capability of the individuals,” Ifaluyi-Isibor stated.
Obi, who was Atiku’s running mate in the last presidential poll, was a PDP presidential aspirant till May 2022 when he dumped the PDP for the Labour Party and subsequently emerged presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission said campaigns will officially begin on September 28, 2022. Aside from Atiku and Obi, also in the quest for Aso Rock in the February 2023 presidential election, which analysts have described as a three-horse race, is a former Lagos State governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu.
