Omoyele Sowore, candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 presidential election, says he doesn’t feel threatened by the popularity of Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

“I don’t see Peter Obi as a threat. He is part of the old system that I have always fought,” Mr Sowore said Friday during Channels Television Politics Today programme. 

Speaking further, the AAC candidate said Mr Obi “is not the change Nigerians need.”

A former governor of Anambra, Mr Obi has increasingly gained huge support from Nigeria’s politically active youths dissatisfied with the country’s current political system.

The outcome of the presidential primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, further boasted the rise of Mr Obi. 

Mr Sowore accused Mr Obi, with a history of moving from different political parties, as part of the same system that had crippled the nation’s growth. 

“He (Peter Obi) is not new to the rotten system. Somebody who was eight years as Governor of a state. We can be emotional about it but that is the truth. 

“He didn’t build any schools, he didn’t build any industry, he didn’t have a power station. He’s not my kind of progressive.” the AAC candidate added.

According to Mr Sowore, the population of the Nigerian youths are strongly eager for a change of government but only in a seemingly genuine direction. 

“Nigeria wants to change, some young people are genuinely interested in change, a different direction. And then they are presented with somebody who worked for the establishment; somebody who has been in PDP, APGA, come back to PDP, Labour Party.”

In 2019, Mr Sowore, the founder of online news outfit Sahara Reporters, penetrated the youths and gained their support with his #TakeItBack movement.