Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said it will take a miracle for the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi to win.
Mamora said this on Tuesday while featuring on a Channels TV programme “Political Paradigm”.
He said, “What I see, with all due respect is what you can call independent candidacy in Labour, and to the best of my knowledge even in America, no independent candidate has ever won the presidency. They can win in the Senate or House of Representatives but not in the presidential election, so it will be a miracle of the century.”
Mamora acknowledged that the former Anambra State governor enjoys a measure of support on social media, he, however, stressed the importance of strong political structures in winning elections.
The former senator said he won’t dismiss the support enjoyed by Peter Obi on social media, but added that “it doesn’t seem to me that it will be as such as would cause havoc in this system at the end of the day”.
This is because we do our checks on a regular basis. We look at the spread; we look at the capacity on the ground. You see, you cannot underrate the role of structures in politics and particularly in elections because this is the reality. There are many logistics involved in electioneering,” he said.
“The same way all these people are saying they will back Peter Obi is the same way they are saying they will back other candidates, especially those frontline candidates.”
Mamora said no one should be underrated in a contest, “but with all due respect to all these front liners, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Kwankwaso, of course, those are the faces we see when you tune into any channel”.
“So, you cannot underrate but I am saying that in spite of that and with all due respect to other candidates, he (Tinubu) is still the number one candidate to beat, that’s the point I am making,” he said.
Folarin Kehinde is an Abuja-based journalist with over 5 years of experience in journalism. His work has earned him national and international recognition across various beats, including environment, health and politics.
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