Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said that women are more inclined to the candidacy of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

Ezekwesili stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme yesterday.

According to her, the women and the youthful segment of the country’s population are moving toward a direction of change in Nigeria.

Ezekwesili, who noted that women make up about 51 per cent of the voting population, said Obi’s prospect cannot be dismissed taking into the perspective various zones of the country and the appetite they have for an inclusive approach to governance.

The former minister said there is no way she would leave Obi and vote for the other top two candidates in the
2023 presidential race.

She said the top three candidates can easily be rated with publicly available information, and having done her
ratings, Obi is ahead of other contestants.

She said, “To the specific issue of a presidential candidacy, what I said and which I repeat everywhere that I
am asked is that I look at the other two candidates and I rate them immediately on the basis of what we know,
and for the three candidates, there is publicly available information with which to do the rating.

“So, after I have done my rating, there is absolutely no way I would leave Peter Obi and vote for any of the other two candidates,” she said.

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She added that an analytical perspective of what is likely to happen in 2023 suggests that a strong appetite for change is coming from the youthful segment of the population which makes up to 60 per cent of the voting
population, “and many of whom are leaning towards Obi’s presidency”.

Ezekwesili pointed out the improved activeness of the electorate as one of the things that will excite people
who have gotten into politics to effect change, adding that today’s electorate is not disengaged as they were in 2019 and before.

She noted that young people, especially women, are much more conscious as they are now tired of the failure of the government because the groundswell of interest today wasn’t there as of 2019.