Labour Party’s growing popularity in the north, is unsettling APC, PDP — Babachir Lawal

Babachir David Lawal, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has reaffirmed his claim over the growing popularity of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and the party in the northern part of the country. He also expressed confidence that the party would do well in the polls in PDP and APC stronghold states in the Southeast and Southsouth.

Responding to questions on Channels Television’s “The 2023 Verdict” programme on Friday, the Adamawa State-born politician re-emphasized his belief that, contrary to statements from leaders from the APC and the PDP, Peter Obi, and the Labour Party would indeed gather more than 25 percent of the votes in most states in the northern part of the country.

“On the side of the Labour Party, what has changed is that area that we had not expected Labour to do well, they are galloping through, and the momentum is so much that it is difficult to contain,” he said. “You know that when this 2023 election season commenced, Peter Obi was not in the picture during the computations as to what would happen. The expectation was that the race was a straight one between the APC and PDP, then out of nowhere Peter Obi comes in, followed by Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the whole permutation changed.”

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He added that the growing popularity of the Labour Party and the New Nigerian Political Party (NNPP) had unsettled the two major political parties, the APC and the PDP.

“As we speak, Peter Obi has run the PDP out of Adamawa State; they have run the PDP out of Taraba State, Plateau State, Benue State, Kaduna State, quite a lot of states in the north where our calculations were targeting 25 percent, but we are now targeting 55 to 70 percent in the majority of states in the north.

“Of course, we had some doubt about whether the southeast would come out in force to support Peter Obi, but to our present surprise, it is now a complete overrun for the Labour Party.

“They only go to the Southeast to campaign as a form of tourism and to further market themselves. In the south-south, where we thought we were going to compete on a 50/50 basis with any other party, maybe the PDP, we find ourselves targeting maybe 80 to 90 percent in the south-south. I can tell you that even in the so-called far north, our support has been going well,” he said.

Highlighting the experiences at a motor park in Katsina State, Lawal gave an example of how Peter Obi was accepted by the common people, who, according to him, were tired of the situation they were going through.