National Coordinator of the Obidients Movement, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, in this interview, speaks on efforts to reposition the group ahead of 2027 general election, among other issues

You said that the Labour Party will be repositioned and that Mr Peter Obi has the potential to become president in 2027. What is your confidence based on?

It was the great Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory who said that if you are emotionally attached to your tribe or religion and political lineage to a point that justice, fairness and equity become a secondary consideration, then your exposure and your education is useless.

He went further to say that where you cannot rise above petty sentiment, then you are a liability to mankind. We don’t want to be a liability to mankind. We want to add value to mankind. It’s clear to us that there are challenges with the Labour Party and what do we do to mitigate these particular challenges?

It’s building the structures of the Obidient Movement. You remember very clearly that during the 2023 general election, we were accused, rightly so, that we did not have structures in all of the polling units as 1,760 polling units were not covered by the Labour Party.

So, what do we do, learning from that experience, is to say, this energy that we have on the Obidient Movement, let’s galvanize it to a point that we cover each of those particular polling units with what we call polling unit commanders.

When we mobilize those particular unit commanders, and they are cut across all of these particular polling units, we have a solid foundation to be able to push any of the ideas and find solutions to most of the challenges that we have in 2023.

This, of course, is our target. For us, anybody who is interested in good governance, which has already been put in place, and as the kind of words that His Excellency Peter Obi spoke and made it very clear to the Nigerian people, where we have 12.5 million of them registering to vote, give us this particular passion to say, yes, we can move this energy into a systematic way, using the ICT technology as a point to galvanize the Nigerian youth into voting.

So, we are getting prepared, and we are ready to face the challenges that we had during the 2023 general election.

What’s the plan for the Obidient Movement to be bigger than Peter Obi? Are there plans in place for that? When we took over leadership of the Obidient Movement, it was amazing for the first time in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially in the northern part, where people do not want to associate with people from the South, especially from the SouthEast. Today, we have leaders and mallams challenging each other. Today, we have young boys and girls saying that in the next election, we are going for a Christian-Christian ticket.

Most of the time, mostly when you hear it from the North, you don’t get this particular kind of word. When you think that probably that particular number is dwindling; from our investigation that number is increasing.

Where you thought we didn’t have them, we are now having them. The first programme we did in Kano, after I took over leadership, was where I got the feeling that some of the key mallams in Kano, in particular, are speaking to us.

And the young generation covering 44 local governments in Kano, are saying, where are the offices? Where are the points where we will converge? This was not done. So, I can tell you for sure that we are increasing. Probably what you are seeing is those particular words that probably some of them are on social media.

I’m referring to election results…

Just like I said, the party had a lot of challenges and that of course, affected us very greatly. But we are refocusing our mind and saying, this is what we need to do. We’ve learned from Imo. We’ve learned from Edo. We understand the challenges, but we are trying to find solutions to them.

Most Nigerians are disappointed with Labour candidates that were elected with the Obi wave in the last election, especially the lawmakers in the National Assembly. Why should Nigerians trust the Labour Party, and by extension, the Obidient Movement that elected them?

That is the reason why we are structurally putting it into place. The reason why we have already understood some of it is because, you know, the Obidient Movement was an amorphous organisation. People were just doing what they can do.

But now we are structuring everything into formality.

Now, what we have in position is that the national coordinator, we are going to have zonal coordinators, we are going to have state coordinators, we are going to have local government coordinators and we are ending up with having unit commanders.

Now, there is going to be a direction with the concept note that we’ve already put in place. I can assure you, it will galvanize everybody into place, so that all of these issues that you raised will not rear their heads because if there is no direction, we can’t hold anybody responsible.

Obidients Movement was an amorphous organisation. People were just doing what they can do. But now we are structuring everything into formality

Are you saying people voted for members of Labour Party to be in the National Assembly and there was no direction of the party to be able to tell them what to do?

Secondly, does it mean ou don’t have the data of all Obidients now, you don’t know their number? We can’t have the numbers because that’s what we are trying to do.

Yes, that will be the next move that we are trying to do. We want to have a formal registration for each member.

The data will be so much coordinated in such a way you can easily identify an Obedient where he resides and the point of his vote.

During the time of the issue of collecting cars or no cars, His Excellency Peter Obi, in building trust within the electorate, made it clear that he was not in support of anybody collecting cars and that they should justify their move.

It was public. And that is to show you that he has a different direction. Also, you need to know that the majority of the people who came into the Labour Party at that time, many of them are greenhorns.

They don’t even know exactly what the Labour Party itself is, the constitution and manifesto of the Labour Party. So it is gradually that we are putting those particular pegs in the right hole.

How do you explain the confusion between the Obedient Movement and the Labour Party to the Nigerian public?

The party itself, remember, was made by the Nigerian Labour Congress long before now. There have been issues quite all right within the party.

But when members of the Obidient Movement came into the party, of course, they faced a little bit of resistance. But what we want to do, having learned from all of those lessons is to say, look, the Obidient Movement is bigger than the Labour Party.

We have them everywhere; academicians, traders, some members of other political parties. But what we want to do is to ensure that we give a direction, to say, look, we are moving into a political party, A or B, with this particular ideology and belief. If anybody does not believe in that, then they can keep away.

His Excellency Peter Obi, who has been moving from point A to point B, trying to gain the trust of the Nigerian people. We were together with him in Anambra recently. It was one of the priests who even said that sir, you made a statement that you are going to come back and you did. We were amazed.

He made a statement on August 5, and here he is on November 10, presenting them with a cheque. That is building trust. So, it’s continuous building of trust. We want to reshape that particular ideological belief and the difference from the party.

If the platform of the Labour Party is not available to Mr Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 election; are we going to see a situation whereby the Obidient Movement will look for another special purpose vehicle, as he did in 2023?

Politics is dynamic but once the idea is consistent, then of course, you can always find a home. At this particular point in time, we are members of the Labour Party. And we’re still fighting to ensure that Labour Party becomes the party that everybody will trust.

But where it becomes inevitable that the Labour Party is not ready to assimilate the idea of good governance and public accountability, of course, we have to look for another opportunity where we can trade our market.

You spoke about Christian-Christian ticket. Is that the direction you will go in 2027?

I just gave you a simple analogy of some of the kind of thinking that’s happening even in the North, where you never thought that such a statement could come out from. Just like I said, politics is dynamic.

Nobody would have thought that Goodluck Jonathan, someone whose state-controlled only eight local governments, could become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, nothing is impossible.

It is said that Peter Obi has also been talking to Atiku Abubakar. If Atiku gives you a deal, would you guys take it?

In politics, you talk to a lot of people. As we are speaking, a lot of people believe that probably a bigger platform should be one to we should run with. We are talking to each other and there may be a bigger platform.

Does that mean you people will prefer a bigger platform?

That is the reason why we are independently building the Obidient Movement to show our strength. Within a short period of time, you will get our numbers.

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