Ahead of the 2027 general elections, opposition political parties in the country seem to be in disarray, with different stakeholders disassociating themselves from the much-talked-about mergers aimed at dethroning the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Last week, the leader of the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and former governor of Kaduna State, Sen Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said he was not in any alliance with the leading opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP).
Yesterday, the LP presidential candidate in 2023, after a visit to former President Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), returned to host a press conference in Abuja where he also said that he had no deal with the PDP and the NNPP ahead of 2027.
READ ALSO Kwankwaso Denies Power-sharing Deal With Atiku, Obi
A former APC national vice chairman, North West, Salihu Lukman, said opposition politicians, including alienated APC leaders, had commenced negotiations towards producing an alternative political platform ahead of 2027.
But when he spoke to the media yesterday, Peter Obi said there was no merger agreement between the party and any other opposition party.
The former Anambra State governor made the clarification amid speculation that the LP had entered into a merger deal with the PDP and the NNPP.
Although he did not admit or deny the existence of merger talks, he was emphatic that there was “no agreement yet.”
He appealed to all lovers of Nigeria, irrespective of political affiliation, to unite because only a united front can defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which, he said, had “mismanaged” the nation’s resources.
Obi described Nigeria’s security situation as unfortunate and lamented that Nigerians were needlessly being sent to their early graves on account of banditry, terrorism, and kidnapping-for-ransom.
He also faulted the current administration’s claims of fighting corruption.
Obi argued that the level of corruption in Nigeria has remained high, just as the cost of governance has remained high, leading to an astronomical increase in public debt.
Obi stressed that the situation had worsened because government officials willfully mismanaged public funds in 2024 through incessant foreign travels.
LEADERSHIP Friday recalls that the LP candidate and his PDP counterpart, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, lost the 2023 presidential election to APC’s Tinubu in a hotly contested poll.
Tinubu won in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states and secured enough votes in several other states to claim the highest number of votes—8,794,726, almost two million more than his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
Atiku, who has run for the presidential seat a record six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, a first-time contestant, secured an unprecedented 6,101,533.
Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP finished a distant fourth, claiming victory in his state — Kano. He secured 1,496,687 votes.
However, a former APC national vice chairman, North-West, Salihu Lukman, said opposition politicians, including alienated APC leaders, had commenced negotiations towards producing an alternative political platform ahead of 2027.
He acknowledged that most Nigerian politicians are not disposed to a competitive political culture because they are driven by personal ambitions to contest elections and resort to imposition and manipulation of the electoral processes to achieve personal ambitions.
He insists that such a mindset must stop.
In a New Year message to Nigerians, Lukman reminded all political leaders that if they want demonstrate a strong disposition towards rescuing Nigeria, they should commit themselves to allowing political competition in the country as the basis for the emergence of leaders at all levels.
He called on Nigerians to rise to the challenge of making the defeat of APC and President Bola Tinubu not only possible in 2027 but, most importantly, guaranteeing the election of genuinely democratic leaders, not emperors.
“The only way that is possible is if, as Nigerians, we focus on producing a functional political party that will respect its own rules. Indeed, such a functional political party must be distinctively different from APC, PDP, LP, NNPP and all the existing registered political parties in the country.
“Therein lies the difficult challenge. How can such a party be produced, and by who? Is it a new party that will apply for registration with INEC? Do you know if it will be registered? If not, what are the options?
“The other related question is whether such a party will be formed by the same politicians associated with APC and PDP, and in many respects, people who could be judged as responsible for getting Nigeria to this messy situation.
“Opposition leaders must be reminded that so long as they approach the process of leadership selection in the country based on a strategy to impose themselves, they are also part of Nigeria’s problem.”
He urged opposition leaders to refrain from propagating false beliefs like the imposition of candidates through fair or unfair processes.
“As long as political competition continues to be undermined, the propensity to remain in misery, disbelief, and negativity may continue.
“To Nigerians, we must all wake up and seek to take our destiny into our own hands. The source of strength and audacity of Nigerian politicians is derived from the docility and passivity of ordinary Nigerians.
“Once most Nigerians concede politics as the monopoly or exclusive vocation of so-called politicians, the risks of undermining political competition and producing bad leaders with the attendant consequences of remaining in a permanent state of misery, disbelief and negativity will be high,” Lukman said.
Meanwhile, some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have said that most political parties in Nigeria are not formidable and have no agenda.
The CSOs who spoke to LEADERSHIP Friday are the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Transparency International (TI), and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
Speaking through their leader, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, the CSOs chided political parties for not having a proper party structure.
“They don’t have an agenda; they are just there to capture political power. Nigerians have no confidence in the way the opposition is working. They lack internal democracy and no membership drive,” he said.
Rafsanjani described all the political parties as same, and said Nigerians eho desire change must form new political organisations to pursue issues that affect them.
“If Nigerians want to stop unemployment, corruption, hunger and poverty, they must look for new platforms to pursue their political aspirations,” Rafsanjani said.
“Nigerians need a core social justice system. The only way they can get it is through leadership. However, the opposition seems not to be pursuing the people’s interests. It is more of a party owned by individuals.”
APC Tackles Obi Over Comments On Worsening Economy, Insecurity
Meanwhile, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described Peter Obi’s New Year message as misleading and intended to score cheap political points.
The Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general election had claimed in the new year message that the country’s political, economic and security situation was worsening daily.
In a statement by its chief press secretary, Felix Morka, the APC said the claim, made when all indicators show that the country is rebounding significantly across all sectors, cast Obi squarely as Nigeria’s leading doomsayer.
Morka said the economy under President Bola Tinubu’s administration had shown a steady record of progress—with the massive balance of trade surpluses, trillions in stock market wealth creation, a surge in foreign direct investments as a result of increased confidence in the economy, and enhanced foreign reserves, amongst other things.
He said that despite these and other initial beneficial outcomes of ongoing unprecedented reforms, the administration is doubling its effort to ensure that the reforms deliver their fullest benefits for the country’s sustainable growth and transformation.
“In his New Year message, President Bola Tinubu acknowledged that the ‘cost of food and essential drugs remained a significant concern for many Nigerian households.’ To reverse this trend, Mr President assured that his administration was committed to lowering food prices by boosting food production and promoting local production of drugs.
“Mindful of the current inflation rate’s threat to our economy, President Tinubu had also vowed to crash it from 34 to 15 per cent in this fiscal year. With the vigour in the administration’s war on corruption, evidenced by ongoing investigations and trials of well-heeled Nigerians, Obi’s pontification on the urgent need to tame corruption is a clear case of carrying coal to Newcastle.”
He blamed Obi and his ‘co-travellers in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’ of having an obsessive pessimism and endless but futile effort to incite public outrage against the administration.’
According to Morka, this attitude is borne out of their realisation that President Tinubu is “unwittingly cementing their ultimate political irrelevance by his visionary and full-throttle reform and transformation of the fundamental pillars of our national life.”
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