Editorial

Obi, Kwankwaso ‘Partnership’ Will Be Formidable For 2023 Presidential Election – Mbamalu

Publisher of Prime Business Africa, Dr. Marcel Mbamalu has described as ‘formidable’ the possible alliance of the duo of Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso to run for the presidential election in 2023.

Mbamalu was guest analyst on Channels Television Wednesday morning on the breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, where he analysed political and socio-economic issues in the newspaper review.

On the possible alliance between the NNPP and Labour Party, Mbamalu believes in politics, such combinations could be expected.

“With politicians anything is possible in the next 10 or 20 minutes. Before the APC Convention you never knew how it was going to play out until during the convention, suddenly you heard that the Senate President was announced – you knew where they were going.

“So specifically the Labour Party with its candidate Peter Obi – people have been talking about him as a good candidate with Kwankwaso.

“That was the calculation people were making all over the social media. So it’s right and so there should be an official statement.

“With politicians anything could happen, what happens is the interest and how to win elections but if it happens, that will be a formidable arrangement.

“Nigerians will like to have three strong contenders for this 2023 election and who will govern them,” the former News Editor at Guardian newspaper further stated.

The Labour Party candidate, Obi, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently visited Egypt for a comparative studies of the educational, power and economic sectors of both Egypt and Nigeria.

Kwankwaso who has a very huge following in Nigeria’s northern region, on Saturday, reacted to the much-talked about mega party that could dwarf the behemoths – the PDP and APC – and gave what looked like a positive indication.

Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, had on Friday hinted of the coalition when he announced that he had been selected as running mate to Peter Obi. The choice of Okupe as Peter Obi’s running mate however points to a ‘holding ticket’ with the possibility of replacement something in July when a deal would have been effectively struck with Kwankwaso’s NNPP.

The labour Party’s ‘holding ticket’ arrangement for the vice presidency slot in the 2023 elections is similar to that of the ruling APC in which candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu selected Kabiru Masari of Katsina State as running mate but in a holding ticket capacity, as was exclusively reported by Prime Business Africa.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.