By John Salami , Abuja

A former national vice chairman (south-south) of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Hilarry Itah has cautioned the ruling party to be wary of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election.

Itah gave the warning in Abuja on Tuesday while addressing journalists at the APC national secretariat

According to him Peter Obi, has become a hero amongst the Nigerian youths and a phenomenon which APC must tackle ahead of next year’s polls.

He said Nigerian youths are angry and rightly so, hence the ruling party must find ways to address their concerns, warning that Nigeria is a youthful country, making it imperative for APC to consider the disenchantment of the young people in governance.

The APC chieftain said: “Obi is a paradigm that APC needs to deal with. But I will tell you this. The APC is very happy to have Obi around because he is eating up the PDP votes in the South East and the South South. He is just leaving the APC and the Labour Party to contest the votes in the South East and South South.

“Obi is also very popular in the metropolitan Abuja and Lagos. But besides that, in the rural areas of Nigeria, nobody knows him. You go to Zanguru or Zangon Kattaf, and ask who Obi is, and probably most people in those localities mistake him for a trader somewhere. But, he is a phenomenon in the South-south and South-east, metropolitan Abuja and Lagos, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

“The youths are angry, and they have every right to be angry, but unfortunately for the youths, they have been looking for a hero, and they have found in Peter Obi a hero, but it is sad because Peter Obi is the antithesis of everything the youths should be looking for, but they have found him and that is why I said APC should be looking at a new paradigm.

“The party needs to look at the concerns of the youths. It is very important because Nigeria is a very youthful country. We need to create jobs for those who are going to school. We need to give those who are going to school quality education, we need to advance the course of health in such a way that people that are born tomorrow will not suffer the indignity of lack of health facilities that those who are born today are suffering.”

Itah however dismissed the perceived threats from Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate whom he described as usual customer which APC can defeat again in 2023.

He said: “Atiku Abubakar is an old customer, we have dealt with the issue of Atiku Abubakar for a long time and we are going to deal with his issue once again. He comes with no new tricks, we know his tricks and we are going to deal with that politically.

“We do not have any apprehension as to whether he will lose. We are waiting for the work to start in September and we are also waiting for the elections to commence in February, and by the Grace of God, we shall be witnessing the swearing in of Tinubu as the President of Nigeria.

“I have no doubts at all, I know that our work is cut out for us, it is not going to be work in the park, we have a new paradigm that we must deal with. We have new issues in Nigeria that we must deal with.

“Some of us see an emerging new Nigeria where the citizens will have the opportunity and seize the opportunity to call out leaders and ask for accountability.”