According to report by Vanguard on Monday, February 2, 2026, former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has maintained that Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, would still not have emerged victorious even if he had polled as many as 10 million votes nationwide.
Mohammed made this assertion during an appearance on Edmund Obilo’s State Affairs podcast, where he pointed to constitutional requirements as the major obstacle to Obi’s victory.
According to him, winning the presidency in Nigeria goes beyond total vote count, as a candidate must also secure at least one-quarter of the votes in no fewer than 25 states. He stressed that Obi failed to meet this spread, regardless of the number of votes attributed to him.
The former minister further claimed that the Labour Party candidate was unable to deploy agents to a significant number of polling units, estimating that representatives were missing in about 40,000 locations during the election. He argued that this weakness further undermined Obi’s chances.
Reflecting on the broader dynamics of the 2023 polls, Mohammed said ethnicity and religion played an unusually prominent role, especially in Lagos State. He described the election as one of the few times such factors openly shaped political behaviour in Nigeria.
He also noted that the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests influenced voting patterns in Lagos, as many young people were still angry and eager to express their grievances, a development he said did not favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) or its candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Mohammed also drew a distinction between presidential elections and contests for governorship or legislative seats. He explained that presidential elections are often less personal, as voters may feel detached from candidates, unlike governorship races where contestants are familiar figures within the state.
Speaking on Tinubu’s leadership style, Mohammed described the president as loyal and supportive, even toward allies who lose elections. He added that Tinubu is frequently underestimated because of his friendly disposition, but remains highly strategic and deeply knowledgeable about Nigerian politics
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