Yemi Obafemi
The National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Yunusa Tanko, has dismissed recent criticisms by Omoyele Sowore against the Labour Party and its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, stating that Obi’s relevance in Nigerian politics remains unmatched.
“Whether he goes to the toilet, speaks, or makes a statement, it becomes news,” Tanko said, emphasizing that political discourse often gains traction only when it involves Obi.
Tanko stated this while reacting to the criticism via a phone conversation with Channels Television on Sunday.
He said, “So, the question we want to ask is this: when someone is not a worthy opposition, why do you keep talking about him? As we stand today in Nigerian politics, if they don’t talk about Peter Obi, none of them gets traction. None.
“Whether he goes to the toilet, speaks, or makes a statement, it becomes news. That’s the level of Peter Obi’s relevance in today’s political dispensation.”
Speaking on Sunday as a guest on Inside Sources on Channels Television, former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, criticized the Labour Party and its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, dismissing them as a temporary political project incapable of disrupting Nigeria’s entrenched political system.
His words: “But in terms of real opposition. I don’t know why anybody refers to Peter Obi as an opposition. He is not opposed to anything the government is doing. He didn’t organise his supporters to fight for the election victory he claimed.
“He said nothing when fuel prices were increased. He hasn’t done anything that an opposition figure typically does,” he stated.
“My position in 2022 and 2023 is what is unfolding now — that contrary to the impression created that Peter Obi was opposed to the system and capable of challenging it, he is, in fact, incapable of doing so.
“I also said at the time that the Labour Party was a short rental — what they call Airbnb in America. You move in; you check out when your time expires.
“When they are done with Peter Obi, they’ll move the rental to someone else. Maybe Obi doesn’t want to move out now, rightly or wrongly, or maybe he’s staying for show.
“There was this whole debate around the Muslim-Muslim ticket, so Christians responded by saying, ‘If you want to Islamise Nigeria, we’ll Christianise it too’. And who was the most available Christian candidate? Peter Obi.
“If you say you’re opposition, you must act like it. You had six million people vote for you — if you can’t put all of them on the streets, at least put 60,000 in Abuja and see how seriously the government will take you.
“You are the ones pouring cold water on protests because you don’t want real change — you just want to replace Tinubu’s group with your own group.
“Look at all the Labour Party people in the National Assembly — they’re not decamping back to where they came from. They’re decamping to the APC. That’s the point; these guys are not real. They weren’t real in 2023, and they won’t be in 2027.”
