Labour Party chairman Julius Abure has appealed to Nigerians not to vote another “sick” person as president at the 2023 general elections.

Mr Abure, while lamenting the worsening economic downturn under the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in Lafia, Nasarawa, said “Today, the country is sick. It is sick from insecurity, it is sick from unemployment, the economy is not working.

“If you put everything together, the country is sick and we cannot hand it over to sick people; we need vibrant, young, energetic people who can be awake day and night to solve the problems of the country and we have that person,” the chairman added.

He was speaking at the campaign for LP’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in Nasarawa.

Mr Abure’s comment was a reference to Mr Buhari, who during his first tenure as president, embarked on numerous medical tourism, sometimes lasting for several days. 

Mr Buhari had on several occasions travelled to London for medical attention, sometimes amid strike actions by medical practitioners over unpaid salaries and allowances. 

Speaking further, Mr Abure said that the next president of Nigeria should be someone who can drive the country’s economy through a roadmap of progress. 

He explained that the country was in dire need of a personality with unmatched intelligence, capacity, and integrity to head Nigeria’s top political office.

Mr Abure pleaded with Nigerians to vote for a candidate strong enough to proffer solutions to the country’s economic woes and not one that would seek foreign hospitals for treatment. 

“We also need somebody who has character, integrity, somebody that will not take our money abroad.

“Our presidential candidate (Peter Obi) no dey go hospital; he is strong. Our presidential candidate no dey sick…(sic), vice-presidential candidate no dey sick,” he added. 

Mr Abure, however, noted that the permanent voter cards are the only “weapon” to reject the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party in 2023.

LP’s Mr Obi, Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP have been described as the three main presidential contenders in the 2023 elections. 

On Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission said that over 93.5 million eligible Nigerians would determine the fate of the presidential candidates.