Ahead of the 2027 general election, Adams Oshiomhole, the senator for Edo North, has rejected claims that Peter Obi of the Labour Party is a serious political threat to the All Progressives Congress.
He maintained that public outrage over the economic policies of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was the driving force for Obi’s performance in the 2023 presidential election.
The former governor of Edo State made this statement on Monday.
In response to a query about whether the APC was undervaluing Obi’s political clout, especially in light of his triumph in Lagos and impressive performance in the South-East during the 2023 election, Oshiomhole stated that the former governor of Anambra State emerged from a “unusual situation” rather than from his own political prowess.
“No, absolutely not. Obi was created by an uncommon circumstance in which the ruling party chose to dismantle itself, rendering any candidate running on its platform virtually unelectable. Those votes were the result of that uncertainty, according to Oshiomhole.
The former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress attributed the broad voter discontent that, in his opinion, benefited Obi to the financial hardship brought on by the naira redesign strategy and the gasoline shortage that preceded the 2023 election.
Oshiomhole claims that despite having money in their bank accounts, Nigerians were irate because they could not access it.
“People were unable to access the money they had at the bank. They waited all night at ATMs to take out ₦10,000, and after a week, even the machines were empty,” he claimed.
In order to get cash during that time, he continued, many Nigerians also had to pay hefty fees to Point of Sale operators.
“Why would people wait all night to withdraw ₦5,000, then wait again for petrol, and still expect them to wait on election day to cast their ballots for the same government? Obi was the result of his rage, he claimed.
Oshiomhole contended that even before the APC government implemented measures that exacerbated economic hardship on election eve, voters had already lost faith in the Peoples Democratic Party.
He also remembers speaking with voters who held the administration responsible for the difficulties brought on by the lack of funding.
“You said I should keep my money in the bank, but when I went to collect it, they said there was no money,” a woman in my village informed me. They took ₦2,000 out of ₦5,000 at the POS. “How can I endure?”
The senator insisted that the APC’s political platform did not include the policies that caused the hardship.
“I informed her that Buhari’s actions at the time were against APC policy. The election’s result was impacted by such rage, he claimed.
