The campaigns of other prominent presidential candidates have harshly criticized the former president’s decision to support Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.
In his message for the new year, Obasanjo suggested Obi to Nigerians, stating that the former governor of Anambra State possesses undeniable credibility in all aspects of leadership.
The majority of politicians who have been critical of the former president have all visited Obasanjo’s Otta Farm at some point in their search for endorsements, but they are now dismissing his recommendation of Obi as meaningless.
Obasanjo has a track record of supporting presidential candidates in the past.
Shehu Sani, a former federal legislator, said that when Obasanjo endorsed Musa Yar’adua as his successor in 2007, he made it clear that he was doing so and that it happened.
Obasanjo also supported the choice of Goodluck Jonathan as Yar’Adua’s running mate and later supported the first term of the Bayelsa-born politician after he finished Yar’Adua’s term.
Obasanjo declared his support for Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate for president of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2014.
During an interview with Financial Times at the launch of his autobiography, My Watch, in Nairobi, Kenya, Obasanjo, then a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), shared his perspective.
At that point, Obasanjo believed that Buhari was fully qualified to lead the nation. He made the decision against Goodluck Jonathan’s plan to run for a second term, and it worked out. When Buhari was declared the winner of the 2015 presidential election, he became the first person to oust an incumbent president.
Obasanjo had expressed confidence that Buhari would effectively combat corruption and insecurity if elected.
He also said that Buhari could boost the military’s morale to fight the insurgency in the North East and elsewhere in the country.
However, the South West Agenda (SWAGA), a support group for Bola Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate, has rejected Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi.
Senator Dayo Adeyeye, the National Chairman of SWAGA, stated that the former president’s decision, which he characterized as void and devoid of substance, will not affect the victory of the former governor of Lagos State.
The APC’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) also said that Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi was pointless because the former president doesn’t have much of an impact on the election.
Also, the PDP PCC insisted that Atiku would be president in his lifetime, regardless of whether Obasanjo liked it.
The former president’s endorsement of Obi has also been rejected by the Patriotic Youth Front of Nigeria, or PYFN.
Maxwell Ogar, president of the PYFN, said that because Obasanjo has blood on his hands, he can’t help young people in Nigeria.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a leader of the All Progressives Congress, also played down the endorsement.
Fani-Kayode, a spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima campaign council, said, among other things, that Obi’s endorsement by Obasanjo is pointless.
Popular activist Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko told DAILY POST that Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi for president was significant because it was a step in the right direction.
Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi falls within his fundamental human rights. He stated, “His opinion has elicited varying responses from a cross spectrum of politicians and parties because it carries a lot of weight because he is an influential statesman.”
He continued, “Peter Obi enjoys a fatherly position in the crude oil bearing communities, so Edwin Clark’s endorsement of him is a significant boost for the Labour Party.” Both politicians have the right to express themselves freely.
When Nigerians go to the polls in a few weeks, they are eager to see what happens to the endorsement.