Ex- Enugu State Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani, has suggested that Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi lacks national appeal to become Nigeria’s president.
Nnamani, who is representing Enugu East, said this in a statement adviced Obi and his supporters to accept Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.
“Obi knows he has neither spread nor national appeal to win the presidential election, what Obi is doing with the petition is trying to demarket Tinubu,” Nnamani said.
“His petition is dead on arrival, he does not have the spread or national appeal. His appeal to non-electoral matters is to demarket the president-elect and damage his reputation.
“He does not have near spread and national appeal, the petition is ego-driven and a joke carried too far.
“His attempt to highlight on non-electoral issues is trying to embarrass the president-elect.”
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat fellow contenders – Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6,984,520 votes, while Obi had 6,101,533.
Obi and Atiku are challenging the victory of the APC candidate in court.
In the suit, Obi argued that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election and asked the INEC to conduct a fresh election in which the APC candidate will not participate.
Nnamani added that Obi should give room for negotiation on behalf of the Igbos for a stake at the national level.
“We must join the mainstream and participate in the making of a new Nigeria,” Nnamani said.
“We are not going anywhere and ready to bargain for our own share. It is a common knowledge that others are doing the same.”
Nnamani, who lost his senatorial re-election bid in March to Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party, said Igbo has to “confront reality now or be consigned to the backwoods of history and that the time to align is now.”
