Obi’s One-Term Promise, Political Strategy —Kenneth Okonkwo

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Former spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, says Peter Obi’s recent promise to serve only one term if elected president in 2027 is a well-thought-out plan and a political strategy with the aim of winning northern support.

Okonkwo stated this on Friday when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, saying that Obi was aware that failure to make such a commitment could not get him northern support come 2027.

He said: “So I brought the theory as a way for any opposition party to inspire Nigerians to know that each side will not lose when they make any choice, whether north or south.

“So, it was even Atiku Abubakar that first of all said he was going to do one term, then Peter Obi now keyed into it because he knows that if he, as a younger person, does not make that promise, he loses the entire North,” he said.

Okonkwo stated that the idea was to reassure both regions that power rotation would be strictly followed.

“So it’s purely a political strategy to say, ‘Look, I am not going to cut the eight years. I’m not going to shortchange you. So if I am elected, I will just do only four years to complete the eight years of the South.’ So that’s just the whole idea about it,” he stated.

According to him, any party intent on unseating an incumbent must present a consensus that its presidential candidate will get only a single term, to make sure that no faction feels wronged.

The lawyer said, “I was the one who propounded it (one-term presidency) as a theory, saying that any party that is serious about fighting an incumbent must have to say that whoever is going to contest should have to do one term so that no side will feel cheated.

“So if you are a southerner, if you don’t agree to do one term, the northerners will say you want to do another eight years, which will offend the system. If you are a northerner, if you don’t agree to do one term, the southerners will say that means you want to cut us short early.”

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