2023: “If Peter Obi Had Stayed With Atiku, PDP Would Have Won” – Lai Mohammed

By Gideon Njoku 

The immediate past Minister for Information and National Orientation,  Lai Mohammed, has said that Peter Obi would have been Nigeria’s Vice  President today if he had stayed back in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and ran for the Presidency on same ticket with Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 General Elections. “I think that if he had stayed with Atiku, PDP would have won”, said Mohammed.

Mohammed who served under the Administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, also, said that Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, did not win the 2023 Election as is strongly still being speculated in some quarters, and could not have won even if he had 10 million votes. He emphasised that Obi was not rigged out but lost. “He 

did not constitute a headache during the election.”

The former Minister who has been on the quiet side since he left Government spoke when he featured 

on Edmund Obilo’s Podcast, State Affairs.

Recall that Obi suddenly resigned from the PDP a few days to the Party’s Presidential Primaries, defected to the Labour Party, and picked its Presidential ticket. He not only instilled  life into the LP,  but he took Nigeria’s political space by storm and shocked most people by his sterling and unprecedented performance at the polls, especially, for a first timer who contested under a little known political party. 

It was his performance, countrywide, that sparked the controversy, till date, over who really won the election and, according to Mohammed, pushed him and his team to travel abroad to educate the international community that Obi  did not win the election.

Lai Mohammed: “Even if Peter Obi had won 10 million votes, he could not have become president.

“After the election, its legitimacy was being questioned, if you remember. As a matter of fact, the Labour Party, if you go to social media in 2023, you would feel it won the election; they were everywhere on social media.

“And they did not win the election. Unfortunately, the perception out there was that they won and were rigged out. They did not win and were not rigged out.

“I took it upon myself and my team to meet think- tanks in the US, UK, and international media, and we explained to them why Peter Obi could not have won the presidential election.

“The constitution of Nigeria is very clear: you need two requirements to win the presidential election. First, you must have scored the highest number of votes; second, you must also have scored at least one-quarter of the votes cast in two-thirds of the states.

“The results are there: Obi did not come first, he did not even come second; he came a close third to Atiku.

“However, he scored one-quarter of the votes cast in 15 states, Atiku scored one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states, and only Asiwaju had the majority of votes and one-quarter of votes cast in 29 states of the federation.

“Obi was not the biggest headache, and I think that if he had stayed with Atiku, PDP would have won.”