The opposition coalition has said the gale of defections by members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not come to it unexpectedly.
The coalition said the latest defection of the Governor of Delta state, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and other leaders of the main opposition party to the ruling party justified its earlier position that PDP Governors were playing Tinubu’s spoiler game.
Salihu Lukman, a chief strategist of the coalition who stated this in Abuja on Thursday, said it is expected that many other PDP governors and leaders will join the APC.
“It is anybody who says this is not unexpected who will only be deceiving himself. The signals have been there that some governors are going to decamp. It’s not just one but some governors.
“You also know the situation in PDP. The party is a shadow of itself. Although we acknowledge there are people, there are leaders in PDP who are optimistic they can rescue the party. But if you remember, when the governors started the coalition, what was our response? We responded that many of them are working for Asiwaju.
“Shortly after that, you saw the statement from Akwa Ibom, and of course, the Delta governor. It’s not only him; if you check the comments, there are many more who are being expected.”
On two sides, on the side of people who genuinely worry for the country, are expressing fear about a one-party state.
“On the side of the government and APC, they are jubilating. All that one can say is that the beauty of democracy is about competition. The whole initiative to begin negotiating the coalition is to ensure that in 2027, Nigerians are presented with options,” he said.
Lukman stated that the coalition has gone far, and what happened in terms of some governors and some leaders moving into the APC will not distract it.
He said that not long from now, the full details of the coalition will be unveiled to Nigerians, and the structure and strategy for contested elections will be clarified.
“The second thing that one will see is that I do hope leaders in the PDP will take this as an advantage and use it to not just do introspection, but also try to start working towards sanitising the country and rescuing it in a way that it will correct its own mistakes. What are those old mistakes? The old error is anything that will continue with the culture of imposition of candidates and godfatherism. That is what PDP has produced in this country.
“We are just hoping that leaders of PDP who genuinely are working to rescue the party think that rescuing the party should mean rebuilding the party so that the culture of imposition is a thing of the past in PDP. If that happens, we will regard the new PDP that will be born as a partner in the project of the coalition to rescue the country.“I can tell you for sure, we are not going to produce a new political structure that will be blind or ignorant of the character of politicians. Anybody coming in will be related to, based on their past trajectory. So, if we truly want to rescue the country, we are not talking of rescuing the country as just defeating Asiwaju and APC.“
We want to correct all the mistakes and shortcomings of the Buhari and Asiwaju administrations. And we want to restore the aspiration of Nigerians to produce a stronger and greater country. Produce leaders that they will be proud of. That is what the coalition is all about. And if anybody sees it differently, we will correct all of that.
“We are going to jump the gun. When you talk about the crisis in PDP, many people relate it to the contest for the presidential candidate in PDP. I don’t know what happened in PDP.
I have my estimation of what has happened. I don’t know whether it is a mistake or not. It is their headache.
“All we are doing in negotiating the coalition is to produce a united Nigeria. A leadership that will see the country at its own cost. If we are talking about correcting the mistake of Buhari and Asiwaju, we don’t want to produce a government that will be seen as a sectional government. We want to produce a government that Nigerians will be proud of,” Lukman added.
