₦airaland Forum

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has backed Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, urging all workers in the country to vote for him in Saturday’s election.

In a press statement on Thursday signed by Festus Osifo and Nuhu Toro, president and secretary-general of TUC respectively, the union said the 2023 elections were crucial and may determine the immediate future of Nigeria, especially in socio-economic terms, and the general well-being of the country.

The union said workers across Nigeria must be conscious that the LP was theirs, which necessitated the need for them to support the party’s candidates at all levels across the country.

“The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria is calling on workers in the country and their allies to be vigilant as the 2023 general election kick-off this Saturday, February 25, with the presidential and national assembly elections.

“These elections are so crucial that they may determine the immediate future of the country, especially in socio-economic terms, and, the general well-being of the country.

“Workers have the duty not only to cast their votes for candidates of their choice who are pro-labour and they can trust, but also to defend the sanctity of the electoral process.

“Congress hereby directs all our members in all the 36 states and the 774 local governments to be reminded that Labour Party belongs to us, hence our appeal to all our members to vote for the labour party and all their candidates.

“Workers must keep in mind that where the political elites, some of who hold multiple nationalities, are rich enough to relocate abroad, the working people and the mass of the citizenry have no alternative but to stay in the country.

“Hence the working class has a greater stake in ensuring not just the peaceful conduct of the elections, but also to safeguard general peace in the country, including in the post-election period,” the TUC said in the statement.

The union also urged all Nigerians to ensure that special protection was given to electoral officials, especially the over 200,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members engaged as ad-hoc staff to ensure smooth elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also charged to ensure smooth elections in which the votes count, while the entire process must be free, fair, transparent and credible.

According to the union, “These youth corpers are not only crucial for successful elections but also are part of the bulwark of our youths that can guarantee a future Nigeria.

“Congress also urges the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure smooth elections in which the votes count, the entire process must be free, fair, transparent and credible.

“Government at all levels has a primary duty to secure lives and property, so, they must protect all citizens before, during and after the elections.

“The TUC also welcomes the 33 international organisations and the 2,113 observers they have deployed for these elections and requests them to stick to their role of observing the elections without any form of interference.

Equally, we urge them to refrain from making statements that can inflame passions or lead to any form of disruption in the country.”

tsephanyah:
Obi, you will lose.

We all know tinubu sponsored you to diminish PDP's chance but you and tinubu will lose

Digitron:
25% is huge ooo

That's like 1 in every four voters

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party has lashed out at the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for spreading propaganda against the party.

Addressing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, the Co-convener of POSN, Tochukwu Ezeoke, said both the APC and PDP have resorted to propaganda, and fake news because they know that their defeat is imminent.

Ezeoke asserted that the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, remains the best person to change the fortunes of the country, and rescue it from the clutches of ruins.

He stated that the LP is the party to beat, and a vote for the former Governor of Anambra State is a vote for development in the country.

He said: “Faced with certain electoral defeat, the APC and the PDP have resorted to propaganda, political bribery, and spreading fake news and unfounded information against the Labour Party to help their demoralised supporters.

“It is now obvious that the Labour Party is the party to beat and so their masters have seen the truth and are tactically submitting.

“These failed politicians have failed to read the signs of times, that a new generation of Nigerians hewed in the blood of innocent Nigerians over the years have risen to take back their country and they will not stop until the day a new Nigeria is born; the 2023 elections are just the beginning.”

Ezeoke asserted that the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, remains the best person to change the fortunes of the country, and rescue it from the clutches of ruins.

Digitron:
What are Obi's chances in OSun?

“I know a lot of people who will leave (the country) if the right candidate does not win,” said Oyetayo.

Nigerian tech entrepreneur Fred Oyetayo relocated to Britain last year, but the 29-year-old plans to fly back home to cast his vote in the presidential elections on Saturday.

Nigerian tech entrepreneur Fred Oyetayo relocated to Britain last year, but the 29-year-old plans to fly back home to cast his vote in the presidential elections on Saturday.

“We all want change,” he told AFP, blaming Nigeria’s current and past leaders for the country’s myriad problems, from a disastrous economy to the biggest security crisis in years.

Despite the stream of grim developments in Africa’s most populous nation, millions of energetic, creative, and successful young people are itching for the country to advance.

Almost 40 percent of registered voters are under the age of 35 and many are hoping to finally trigger change by casting a ballot to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after his two terms allowed by the constitution.

“For the first time we have the usual terrible people and a good person,” said 28-year-old Temidayo Oniosun who works in the space industry and has invested in dozens of early-stage startups.

That “good” person according to the Lagos-based entrepreneur is 61-year-old Peter Obi, who represents the first credible challenge the country’s main two parties have ever had.

The ruling party’s candidate is 70-year-old Bola Tinubu while the main opposition’s candidate is 76-year-old Atiku Abubakar.

Both are perceived by many as being corrupt though they have never been convicted of any charges and both deny any wrongdoing.

– 26 million students –
Successful young professionals are not the only ones supporting Obi, who is also popular with students, a large pool of 26 million registered voters.

On the campus of the University of Abuja in the capital, Brandon Okori and Daniel Ononaye are rushing to their political science class.

“I am definitely voting (for) Obi,” said 23-year-old Okori, while his friend Ononaye, 22, nods and adds: “Obi is not there for the money or the power, like the two others.”

A combination of factors have energised Nigeria’s youth in these elections. For one, economic hardship has reached extreme levels, with months of university strikes and youth unemployment at more than 40 percent, leading to a rise in criminality.

There is also a newfound belief that young people’s voice matters, especially since youth-led protests erupted in late 2020.

For the first time since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, young people massively took to the streets across the country, demonstrating in a peaceful and organised way against police brutality and demanding better governance.

The movement was violently repressed, revealing “the ruptured social contract between the Nigerian state and society,” according to Leena Koni Hoffmann, a fellow at the British think tank Chatham House.

“There is a lingering sense of political betrayal,” she wrote, and late last year, the electoral commission announced that 76 percent of newly registered voters for 2023 were under the age of 34.

It remains to be seen if this cohort of young people will actually turn out to vote — many did not pick up their voters card and therefore will not be able to cast a ballot.

And while Obi leads in several pre-elections polls, Tinubu and Abubakar have access to more resources and control governors and other leaders who hold considerable sway in their constituencies.

In addition, vote buying is common and voting patterns along religious and ethnic lines remain strong.

Zahra Abba is a student at the University of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, which along with the northwest have a majority-Muslim population and have traditionally had the highest turnout during elections.

“Who is Peter Obi? From which state? Anambra (a southern, mostly Christian state)? I don’t like him,” said the 22-year-old biology student, adding that she would have voted for Buhari if he was running again but will likely settle for Abubakar.

‘Messiah‘
But the northern vote is split.

“We are trying not to see Obi as a messiah because we had a terrible experience with perceiving politicians in that sense,” said 30-year-old Fakhrriyyah Hashim from the northern city of Kano and works in social development.

“But he has the stature of a messiah in the minds of young people and everybody believes this is someone who is going to turn the tide around,” said the young woman.

She is aware of the risk of voting for a third party in a country where two largely dominate, and is still weighing her decision.

“I don’t want to cast my vote for someone who may lose, and just hand the victory to the ruling party, so I might vote Atiku (Abubakar), I might vote Obi, it depends on what their chances look like in the next few days.”

For many entrepreneurs like Fred Oyetayo, the election will have direct consequences on their burgeoning businesses but also on the lives of those around them.

“I know a lot of people who will leave (the country) if the right candidate does not win,” said Oyetayo.

Temidayo Oniosun is optimistic. While the old guard “joke about the Obidient movement” that supports Obi, he and many others are readying to send them a wake-up call.

Oceemo:
You and i know who either by rigging or otherwise

donbrowser:
I know PDP-Lite will still come here to rant, just remember Saturday is near

CoronaVirusRelo:
Obi is not cumming anywhere!

Seems you don’t know Obi has done vasectomy

CoronaVirusRelo:
Illusion!

Keep smoking pawpaw leaves

Nwodosis:
Na Nairaland own surprised me pass o!
With all the urchins on Nairaland, Obi is still leading.

Officialgarri:
We will not vote Peter Obi and there's nothing you can do about it

The Zikist-Aminu Kano Patriots (ZAP), a nationalistic political movement, says the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, presents reliable character, capacity, and competence to lift Nigeria out of a Cliff-Hanger.

ZAP also resolved and hereby endorsed Obi and appealed to all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, creed, political leaning, and philosophy, to reach out for Obi in this critical time of the nation’s history.

The Secretary General of ZAP, Dr. Steve Igweze, said this on Sunday, February 19 in a statement issued after the movement’s general meeting in Enugu at the weekend.

Igweze said that before concluding endorsing Obi, members deliberated on the various issues and expectations of Nigerians from the next president to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2023.

According to him, “we, therefore, call on eligible Nigerian voters to cast their ballot for the Obi-Datti Presidential ticket, come Saturday, February 25, 2023

ZAP carefully assessed the four leading presidential candidates: Sen. Bola Tinubu of APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP, and Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party

ZAP concluded that, without prejudice to tribe or tongue, Peter Obi presents a more reliable character, capacity, and competence to lift Nigeria out of the present Cliff-Hanger.

Peter Obi’s pledge to transform Nigeria from Consumption to Production is realistic, given the truism that not only he invested in Onitsha, Ogun, Abuja, but also that as a stingy person, it is easier for Obi to save our commonwealth for investment.

ZAP added this virtue is starkly absent in the two other presidential candidates because while one excels as Lagos Tax Collector, the other accumulated wealth as Wharf Tax Collector.

“ZAP deliberated on Obi’s plan to mechanise the swathe of hectares of land in northern Nigeria for massive agrarian revolution.

“ZAP believes that Obi’s agrarian revolution comes as a seamless continuity of President Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution, evidenced by Anchor Borrowers Programme and Green Imperative Project,” he said.

The secretary said that ZAP’s position aligns with the editorial of the Economist of London, which held that Obi is the best among the four front-line presidential candidates.

ZAP believes that by the rotation convention of president from north to south and south to north, which birthed the 4th Republic of Nigeria and ensured equity, justice, and fairness, the LP presidential ticket is balanced and captures the demographic quest for youth inclusion in governance.

“Therefore, Obi fits the bill and offers Nigeria a new path to unity, socio-political stability, and economic progress,” he added.

Dreal1247:
Only God knows the promise made to El-rufai by Tinubu that is making him so desperate at this point in time. The crowd follows the politicians to locations chanting, winning and dinning. Unfortunately, when the major decisions are being taken, the people don't even know. God will surely deliver us from unknown agreements.

bigdammyj:
I hope you have your P.V.C.

My vote is for Tinubu.