In the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial elections across Nigeria, Peter Obi has urged his Obidient movement to support governorship candidates who exhibit character, competence, capacity, and compassion.
Obi insisted that the Obidient Movement would support deserving candidates from other political parties whether or not they belonged to the Labour Party.
This was said by Obi in an interview with Arise TV when he was explaining why the party did not field candidates for governor in the majority of the states during the upcoming Nigerian governorship election.
He said: “Nigerian politics has been largely transactional. When we started the Obidients movement people didn’t believe what we were trying to do. The consequence is that we didn’t have candidates in most states.
“Because being a traditional thing, people like to be where things are shared. So nobody believed that a party without a councillor or local government chairmen can just rise up and become something. So we didn’t have candidates in most places.
“Few places we were able to have candidates, I can say, were first-class candidates. In some places[where we don’t have candidates], we’ll work with some good candidates. In the Southeast, we only have candidates in two states.
“We’re urging people to support [Labour Party’s adopted candidates] where we’re going to have partnerships like in Cross River State, where we have someone like Prof Sandy Onor of the PDP, we consider him an excellent candidate.
“For me, it’s about having competent, credible people who have proven integrity that can do well. We’re not saying it must be the Labour Party always. Where we think we have good people we’ll support them. It must not be [Labour Party] but wherever there is a better candidate. It’s time we build this institution and ensure we do the right thing. For me, I want people to indicate places where we have good candidates and we’ll go and support them.”
