Datti Baba-Ahmed, vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has asked Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, to retract his statement which questioned the capacity of Peter Obi, LP presidential flagbearer, to lead Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed spoke on Monday in an interview with Channels Television.
Okowa, vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in an interview with BBC pidgin, had said Obi does not have the needed experience to lead Nigeria.
“His (Obi) previous experience is not enough for this one (presidency). It will be hard. His experience is not deep enough,” the Delta governor had said.
Reacting to Okowa’s comment, Baba-Ahmed said Obi is the most qualified among the candidates of the four leading candidates vying for the presidency.
“That is absolutely untrue. In fact, I beg you to show me anyone who has had more leadership experience in the 2023 contest. By that contest, I mean the candidates that we have — the four leading candidates,” he said.
“I fail to see anyone who even comes close to his excellency, Peter Obi. The world is now at the stage where we need private sector experience and among all of them, no one has much private sector business sense, prudence, frugality, ability to manage persons, communities, interest groups. None of the other three has as much.
“That comment is a very unfair comment, and I will like to think that very soon, the maker of that comment will have to retract because it shows that he has no idea about what capacity is.
“Apparently, we were in the senate together. We used to sit not too far away. I have a lot of respect for him, but I least expect him to misread what capacity is. When you speak of capacity, you are talking of people like Peter Obi and with all modesty, my humble self.”
