Presidency 2023: Bello blasts Peter Obi – Online agitation different from grassroots mobilisation

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, campaign coordinator for  youth mobilization of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ridiculed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, over  the Anap poll which revealed  that Obi led the presidential candidates of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar,  saying that ‘online agitation is different from grassroots mobilisation’.

Governor Bello, speaking on Channels Television, acknowledged  the greatness of Obi in business and leadership, but said that online popularity does not translate to grassroots mobilisation.

Bello was cited to have said: “Peter Obi – I respect him. A gentleman, one-time governor; a businessman who everyone knows has engaged in several businesses including the importation of the majority of the products we consume today in the country.

“He is doing well in his own right but…online agitation is different from grassroots movements and mobilisation.”

The governor said that similar online poll was conducted when he was contesting for a second tenure that was not in his favour, yet, he won. He, therefore, declared: “I simply laughed because they are not on the ground. “They fly in the sky. They don’t move by the road.

“They don’t have a connection at all with the people. I knew exactly what I had put on the ground and the connectivity I had on the ground and I won the election like never before in the history of Kogi State.”

He said that Obi does not have the support of Nigerian youths.

According to Bello, “…during the contest before the presidential primaries of all political parties, the only person that commands the respect and control of Nigerian youths is Governor Yahaya Bello.”