Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has maintained that Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi would not have emerged victorious in the 2023 elections, even if he had garnered 10 million votes.
Mohammed made the statement during an appearance on Edmund Obilo’s State Affairs Podcast, explaining that Obi still fell short of the constitutional requirement to win the presidency.
“Even if Obi had got 10million votes, he wouldn’t have won. This is because he still could not get one-quarter of the votes cast in 25 states. It is even on record that he could not provide agents at about 40,000 polling units,” he said.
Reflecting on factors that influenced the 2023 election, particularly in Lagos, the former minister noted, “For the first time in the history of politics in Nigeria, ethnicity and religion played a very frontal role.” He also highlighted the role of the #EndSARS protests, which affected voter sentiment in Lagos, saying many youths “wanted a pound of flesh,” which did not benefit the APC or Bola Tinubu.
Mohammed further distinguished between presidential contests and state-level elections.
“I am of the belief that the presidential elections are not as personal as the governorships or national assemblies. In presidential elections, a man might not be affiliated with any of the candidates. But when it comes to governorships, it is particular and peculiar because the candidate lives in the state,” he explained.
On President Tinubu’s leadership style, Mohammed praised his loyalty to allies, stating, “Asiwaju is not the kind of person who will drop his support for you because you have lost the election. No, he will still encourage you.”
He also defended the president’s political acumen, noting, “He is strategic and really understands Nigerian politics better than anybody you might think of.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress winner of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election after he polled 8,794,726 votes, defeating his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who garnered 6,101,533 votes, with Tinubu also meeting the constitutional requirement of securing at least 25 per cent of the votes in two-thirds of the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
