Even With 10 Million Votes, Obi Still Wouldn’t Have Won 2023 Election for Failing to Secure One-Quarter of Votes in 25 States — Lai Mohammed
Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has maintained that the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, would still have lost the contest even if he had secured as many as 10 million votes.
Mohammed made the assertion while speaking on Edmund Obilo’s State Affairs Podcast, where he explained that Obi failed to meet the constitutional requirement of securing at least one-quarter of votes cast in a minimum of 25 states of the federation.
“Even if Obi had got 10 million votes, he wouldn’t have won. This is because he still could not get one-quarter of the votes cast in 25 states,” the former minister said.
He further claimed that it was on record that the Labour Party candidate could not deploy polling agents to about 40,000 polling units during the election.
Speaking on the dynamics that shaped the 2023 presidential election, particularly in Lagos State, Mohammed said ethnicity and religion played a more prominent role than ever before in Nigeria’s political history.
“For the first time in the history of politics in Nigeria, ethnicity and religion played a very frontal role,” he stated.
He also noted that the #EndSARS protests had a significant impact on the political atmosphere in Lagos, especially among the youth, many of whom he said were driven by anger and resentment, a development he argued did not favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Mohammed further highlighted the distinction between presidential elections and governorship or National Assembly contests, stressing that presidential elections are often less personal.
“In presidential elections, a man might not be affiliated with any of the candidates. But when it comes to governorships, it is particular and peculiar because the candidate lives in the state,” he said.
Commenting on President Tinubu’s leadership style, Mohammed said the president does not abandon his allies after electoral losses, describing him as supportive and encouraging even in defeat.
“Asiwaju is not the kind of person who will drop his support for you because you have lost the election. He will still encourage you,” he said.
He added that Tinubu is often underestimated due to his warm and charismatic personality, noting that beneath that demeanor lies a highly strategic political mind.
“He is strategic and really understands Nigerian politics better than anybody you might think of,” Mohammed concluded.