As the judiciary dispenses with the last batch of petitions that arose from the 2023 General Elections, there are indications that some opposition political parties in the country may have started moves to collaborate with one another to checkmate the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC) and ultimately dislodge it from power at the centre in the 2027 General Elections. Sunday Telegraph learnt that the three leading op- position parties namely, Peoples Democratic Party( PDP), Labour Party ( LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party ( NNPP) are considering a realignment of their forces for the sole purpose of confronting their common political rival. There are fears that unless the opposition parties work together, their electoral fortunes will continue to dwindle as the APC ap- pears poised to do any- thing to maintain its hold on power.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had last November, called on the opposition parties in the country to close ranks and checkmate the excesses of the APC. “We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn”, he said. The APC did not only win the 2023 presidential election, it is currently in control of 20 of the 36 states; the PDP controls a total of 13 states while the LP, NNPP and the All Progressive Grand Alliance ( APGA) have one state each. The consensus in the opposition camp is that the parties must swallow their pride, sink their differences and work together if they must halt the dominance of the APC in the political equation of the country.
Sunday Telegraph gathered that the motivation to work together is borne out of the experience of 2015, when about four opposition parties in the country had to merge into one in order to be a formidable force, strong enough to defeat the PDP, which had, as at that time, dominated the political scene for a record 16 years. Ahead of the 2015 elections, the then main opposition parties namely, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party ( ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) came together in a historic merger. They were joined by a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), a break away group from the PDP, the party in power at the time.
These legacy parties coalesced into the All Progressives Congress ( APC) and picked a former military Head of State, General Muhamnadu Buhari as their sole candidate and that became the joker that sent the PDP packing from Aso Rock. However, the emerging scenario is slightly different from the 2014 experience as the merger talks appear to be conducted using back channels, at least for now. Inquiries at the headquarters of the PDP and LP, seeking to confirm if the leadership of the parties had opened merger talks did not yield much as party officials were not willing to confirm or deny the development.
At the Wadata Plaza, headquarters of the PDP, party officials, who ought to speak on the issue, were unavailable while those available were evasive on the issue. National Publicity Secretary of the LP, Obiorah Ifoh, told Sunday Telegraph that there was nothing on the table to suggest the party is in merger talks with any political party. “We are not in any merger talk and we will not be. But we can partner with like minds political par- ties in agreement on how to legally unseat the APC government in the coming general election,” Ifoh said. However, the closest in- dication that an alliance of opposition forces might be in the offing came from the National Consultative Front (NCFront) otherwise known as Leaders of Conscience, a group that has consistently canvassed the need for a Third Force to save democracy in Nigeria.
A prominent leader of the NCFront, Prof Pat Utomi, who addressed the issue in an interview on Channels Television, disclosed that there were indeed merger talks among the opposition parties in the country. Utomi, a political econo- mist and former presiden- tial candidate, explained that he had discussed the proposed merger with prominent opposition figures namely, Atiku Abuba- kar( PDP) , Peter Obi ( LP) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (NNPP), who were presidential candidates of their respective parties in the 2023 election. Accord- ing to him, these prominent opposition figures have ex- pressed commitment to the proposed merger. Utomi said the merger talks would culminate in the formation of a new political party with clear- cut ideology and vision for national development.
“This narcissism is a cancer that is tearing Nigerian politics now. What we need are people who sacrificially give up themselves to build a great country with their possible reward being immortality. When I talked to several of the presidential candidates in the last election, I had a conversation with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Engr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi, Ralph Okey Nwosu of the ADC and some of those who would likely constitute the base and I said to them it is not about you, it is about Nigeria, the ordinary person in the state and really truly moving from this business of sharing trickles from oil sale to how we can become one of the most productive economies. Our politics has not allowed Nigerian people to produce,” he said.
Why LP is hesitant
Sunday Telegraph learnt that should the merger be- come a reality, a major hurdle which the stakeholders would need to confront would be who among them would be the presidential candidate of the would be new political platform. Al- though every one of them is eminently qualified to fly the flag of the new party, pundits have tipped Obi as the most viable option given his fantastic outing during the last presidential election. This is based on the fact one source disclosed as Obi’s outstanding performance in the 2023 elections, despite doubts about his ability to garner votes from across the country. A source told Sunday Telegraph: “You would recall that before the 2023 general elections, many had doubted that Obi would pull up to 1000 votes across the country. Even his Obidient movement was not taken seriously.
Many had predicted that the group would fizzle out before the election. But what happened at the election surprised everybody. Even the likes of Kwankwaso, who had derided Obi before the election are now wondering how he was able to come third, despite the obvious manipulations of the results. Although, the Supreme Court has affirmed President Bola Tinubu as elected, Obi’s performance has not gone unnoticed.” The source added: “With Atiku not widely accepted due to age and the belief that the presidency would remain in the south until 2031, it means Atiku and Kwankwaso would likely support Obi, who would still be within a reasonable age by then.”
Sunday Telegraph further gathered that this was part of the reason the LP and Obi are none committal to any talks of merger for now. The LP and Obi believe that any alliance that would not make Obi the candidate in 2027 would not work for the party and their 2023 candidate. It was further learnt that Obi is insisting on contesting in 2027 on his own merit, believing that some of the mistakes he made in 2023, would be corrected by then. An LP Source said: “ Was it not because Buhari was a walking 10 million votes before 2015 that all other parties came and queued behind him? Who else in the APC had that type of clout? You can see that even Tinubu escaped narrowly in 2023, scoring less votes than Atiku and Obi combined. In this dispensation, Atiku would be about 77 or 78 years in 2023 officially.
He has lost six times. Do you think opposition par- ties would rally around him? But with Obi, we now know that he can pull weights across the country. So, what’s the need entering into an alliance, where he would not appear on the ballot? It is not possible.”
