2023: What will make me vote for Peter Obi - Gumi

Popular Kaduna Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, on Monday, hosted the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmad, at his residence in Kaduna.

Mr Obi was attending an interactive session for the presidential candidates in Kaduna organised by a joint committee of Arewa groups in the build to the 2023 general elections.

The Arewa Joint Committee is made up of representatives from frontline northern groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Ahmadu Bello Foundation (ABF), Arewa Research and Development Project, and Jamiyyar Matan Arewa.

The programme, which started on Saturday, was attended by Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and Adewale Adeboye of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Obi of the Labour Party and the NNPP candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso were billed to appear before the committee on Monday. The latter declined to attend the event. He claimed the organisations behind the event were biased towards one of the candidates.

But, before attending the event, Mr Obi visited Mr Gumi soliciting his support and told the cleric his plans for Nigeria if elected as the next president in the February 2023 elections.

Responding, Mr Gumi greeted Mr Obi for the visit which he described as a great honour by the presidential candidate who came and briefed him about his plan for Nigeria.

“As you come here (Kaduna) people will like to hear your views about restructuring Nigeria, Nigeria has been restructuring itself from independence to date, it was never static, but I want to know about views on restructuring so that I can write on my Facebook page this is the presidential candidate who can do this for me, I will assure him of my vote, Mr Gumi said.

He also asked Mr Obi what he will do to address the issues of agitations, and widespread poverty in Nigeria.

“How are you going to deal with the issue of polarity and agitations across Nigeria, every region is agitating because people are not happy, how are you going to make these people (agitators) happy under one table?

“You talked more about the economy, the economy sometimes is more than the figures. How can you enrich and empower an unskilled and semi-illiterate population because when you talk about India, and other places, the level of education there is high, and they obey a command, but here unskilled are the big population, what magic are you going to do to improve their economy?

“Also, more importantly, how does Nigeria behave with the International community there is foreign interest in Nigeria because of the vast resources and the vast landmass, other foreign nations have an interest in Nigeria how can you address this situation? Mr Gumi asked.

Mr Obi’s response

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party commended the cleric for provoking the debate on restructuring and poverty which he said he and his running mate have been discussing while coming to Kaduna.

He said “restructuring is a constitutional issue, we need to bring everyone on board and discuss the way forward. In a democracy, consultations, dialogue and consensus give people the impetus and sense of belonging and that is what is lacking.

“On the issues of agitation, I will dialogue with everybody and talk to everyone to understand their grievances, Mr Obi said.

He blamed poverty for the grievances that abound in the country, saying neglect has made the people open to criminality.

“Nigeria is a blessed country, the greatest asset is the uncultivated land which is found in the north. Nigerians are divided because of poverty and the elite are conspiring to keep us divided, Mr Obi lamented.