“He was talking about their future. He was talking about jobs. He was talking about things. So, it is the fact that people are looking for change.”
Peter Obi had a massive youth following in the leadup to the 2023 elections.
An elder statesman Usman Bugaje says Peter Obi’s emergence in the 2023 elections represents Nigerians’ quest for change in the country.
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate took the political landscape by storm when his largely unknown party challenged the already-established parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
While Obi came third, pulling over six million votes in the exercise, Bugaje believes the LP candidate’s outing and his popularity among Nigerian youth epitomised the country’s quest for change from the old political order.
“For me, Peter represents the quest for change. People were tired of APC, were tired of PDP. They were looking for change, especially the young people. So, it could have been Peter. It could have been anybody who had the courage to chart a different course,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.
“It is not so much about Peter. It is about the fact that people are completely disenchanted with the two big parties that have literally destroyed this country because the PDP cannot extricate itself from the blame. It has ruled for 16 years,” the former House of Representatives member added.
“Therefore, young people who were looking for a change saw in Peter some hope that things could be done differently and he was speaking to them in the language they could connect. He was talking about their future. He was talking about jobs. He was talking about things. So, it is the fact that people are looking for change.”
Apart from that, he also faulted President Bola Tinubu’s government over what he described as its disregard for the country’s laws.
“This government does not have any sense of shame. I am afraid to say so. You would feel ashamed to get certain things done,” he said.
“And then clearly, there is an element of contempt for citizens. You just do things the way you want and how you want irrespective of the rules and regulations.”
