Outstanding activist and co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls Motion, Aisha Yesufu, has vowed to actively work towards any social gathering ticket within the 2027 basic election the place former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, runs as a vice-presidential candidate.
Yesufu made the declaration in a video at present circulating on social media, the place she questioned what she described as Nigeria’s persistent tradition of asking “one of the best” candidates to accept secondary or subordinate positions on the presidential ticket.
Reacting to rising conversations suggesting that Obi, who has since defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), may emerge as a vice-presidential candidate in 2027, Yesufu stated such a transfer can be unacceptable to her.
“So let me return to the Mr Peter Obi dialog the place everyone seems to be form of like, ‘oh, you understand,’ the place individuals are like, ‘you need to run as vp,’” she stated. “Me, and I’m supplying you with individuals my phrase now… if Peter Obi is working with anybody because the vp, because the working mate to that particular person, I’ll work towards that ticket.”
She confused that her stance was not based mostly on affect or political energy, however on precept.
“I’m not saying that I’ve any affect. I’m not saying that I’m one large something,” Yesufu said. “In my little capability, I’ll work towards that ticket. Even when I don’t assist another particular person, I’ll work towards that ticket.”
The activist likened the repeated requires Obi to run as a vice-presidential candidate to what she described because the systemic marginalisation of ladies in Nigerian politics.
“Why are we all the time asking one of the best to be second?” she requested. “They’ve finished Peter Obi the identical method they deal with ladies in Nigeria. They may all the time put you within the deputy place — deputy this, deputy that, working mate.”
Yesufu argued that the sample displays a deeper mindset inside the political area.
“The one factor I say to them is, even when it’s a goat that’s working for president, you individuals will put that Aisha as vice,” she stated. “As a result of so far as I’m involved, as I’m a girl, mechanically you see me as vice and nothing else. That can’t, we can’t have that state of affairs.”
She additional famous that Obi’s political attraction lies in his message of empathy and concern for peculiar Nigerians, insisting that such qualities shouldn’t be relegated to a secondary function.
“Peter Obi proper now, he talks about empathy, he talks about any person who cares,” Yesufu added.
