Labaran Maku, erstwhile minister of information and national orientation, has said both the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, underrated Peter Obi of the Labour Party, in the just concluded presidential poll.

Mr Maku noted that both Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar particularly took a large section of the youths, who are mostly followers of Mr Obi under the movement of “Obidients”, for granted.

“They thought Obi would not be able to do much, but were surprised by the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, which showed that the youths were not joking.

“What happened in the presidential election as you could see was that there was this wave of young people, the ‘Obidients’ that we all took for granted and we were thinking Peter Obi was a joke. Where would he go?,” he said on Tuesday while appearing on Channels Television.

Mr Obi had pulled surprises in the February 25 presidential election after he won Mr Tinubu’s strong base of Lagos.

The LP’s presidential candidate, whose campaign attracted the young and urban voters, came a distant third in the exercise won by Mr Tinubu.

Mr Maku said Mr Obi was able to pull a surprise as both the major political parties thought the LP candidate had ‘no structure’ that could win any election in the country.

According to him, many of the youths, who are ardent followers and supporters of Mr Obi, were able to use the power of social media to mobilise and gather support.

“So, both PDP and the APC, we were thinking ‘This man does not have a structure’. He will not be able to do so much.

“But the young people seized the initiative from the politicians and for the first time – what we saw in Nasarawa, Edo, several other places, and in Delta State where the PDP vice presidential candidate comes from – we saw that young people were serious about what they were doing and they took advantage of social media to project a programme which has shaken the nation,” Mr Maku said.