By Sunday Ani
Barely six months to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, Professor Pat Utomi and Comrade Kennedy Iyere, alongside several other high-profile Nigerians, have launched a global fundraising campaign, tagged, FUND40MB, for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.
The PAC-driven initiative anchored by the 40 Million Ballots Movement (40MB), which was launched in Lagos was borne out of a critical necessity to globally mobilize and generate sufficient funds needed to finance the grassroots recruitment and mobilisation of 40 million youths and women voters for the support of Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election.
At the unveiling of FUND40MB, Prof Utomi affirmed that the desire to create a new Nigeria that would work for every citizen was the compelling reason behind the formation of the alternative political platform called the “third force,” which core mandate is to move Nigeria away from the old political order by wresting power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.
Utomi, who is also the chairman of the 40Million Ballots Movement (40MB), noted that the old political order would not be replaced unless money politics was eradicated by citizens, who would directly participate in financing elections and democratic processes. He, therefore, stressed the need for the creation of ‘FUND40MB Global Fundraising Campaign,’ even as he also affirmed its relevance to the success of the ‘Third Force Movement,’ which is all about Peter Obi.
Convener of the 40MB, Comrade Iyere, and chief fundraiser of the FUND40MB and its global fundraising activities stated that the 40MB was not like most other Support Groups of Peter Obi because it was created long before Peter Obi ever thought of contesting for the presidential seat.
“We would like to state at this point that the 40Milliom Ballots Movement was formed long before Peter Obi joined the 2023 presidential race. It was created through the strategic collaborations of key nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisation (CSOs) and major ethnic nationalities, including the pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere; Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), Mdzough U-Tiv, 2023 Power-Shift Movement, Youths Off The Street Initiative (YOTSI) and Igbo World Assembly (IWA) among others. The 40Million Ballots Movement was created out of the existing necessity to compel equitable presidential power-shift to the South East region in 2023, hinged on the imperative need to enforce the implementation of rotational presidency, which in 2023, will work in favour of the Igbo from the South East region, specifically in view of the fact that the Igbo and the South East Region have been unjustly denied the opportunity to produce a democratically elected Nigerian president since the country’s political independence in 1960. As it stands today, Peter Obi is the chief beneficiary of the pro-Igbo presidential power-shift activism anchored by the 40Million Ballots Movement. Hence, the reason he has been adopted as our consensus candidate.”
He clearly stated that the 40MB was 100 percent independent and not influenced or controlled by Obi, the Labour Party or their allies.
In his remarks, the chief spokesperson to Peter Obi and the Obi-Datta Presidential Campaign Organisation, and founding member of the 40MB, Dr Tanko Yunusa, applauded Comrade Iyere and the 40MB for launching the FUND40MB Global Fundraising Campaign.
Other Key speakers at the event included Funke Awolowo, first Grand Daughter of the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo; a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Godwin Nwobodo; a frontline lawyer and development expert, Christian Wogu, and several Nigerian professionals at home and in the Diaspora.