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•Says coalition populated by persons that can’t deliver wards
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has ruled out the chances of the opposition coalition defeating the ruling party in the 2027 general elections.
The ruling party equally argued that no coalition of opposition parties ever succeeded under any presidential system of government.
APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, made the claim in his remarks at the seminar organised by the ruling party’s publicity department in collaboration with the media team of the presidency in Abuja and the zonal and states publicity secretaries.
Ajibola, however seemed to have based his postulation on the theoretical perspective of reading government in secondary school, without making reference to the success of APC in removing a sitting president through a coalition of merged opposition parties.
He further strongly argued that coalition can only practically succeed in a parliamentary system of government when a party can not secure the majority in parliament to form government.
Taking a swipe at the coalition, the ruling party’s chief scribe described some of them as political featherweights that cannot deliver their wards during any form of election.
He said: “Coalition cannot occur in a presidential system of government. So, if anybody is talking about coalition, tell them to go back to secondary school to go and learn government. Some of us who read law, also did government subject in secondary school.”
“A coalition occurs in a parliamentary system of government when a party cannot secure the majority in parliament to be able to form government. So, when you are in opposition, and you are not even securing anything, you said you are forming a coalition.
“I think in Nigeria, people like big, big grammar. Otherwise they are already factionalised and no longer up to one, yet they want to make it five and say they have formed a coalition,” he chided.
While lampooning them further, Ajibola asked: “Who are those even forming coalition? Are they the politicians that did not even deliver their wards and units in the last election?
“Imagine somebody who did not vote for Asiwaju in 2023 saying that he is leaving APC to go and form a coalition. You ask yourself what is the benefit of your being where you were before when you did not add any value to us,” Ajibola quipped.
Similarly, APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, who spoke at the seminar, had admitted how daunting the challenge of speaking for the party has been.
He said: “We are here to talk together, listen to each other and to brainstorm on how to do this work entrusted on us as publicity secretaries. It has been a long time in coming but all that counts is that we are here today.”
“Make no mistake, this is a very exciting time for all of us to have the enormous responsibility of speaking on behalf of Africa’s largest political party in Africa’s most populous country. But, it is also very daunting to take up that responsibility at a time like this, at a very challenging period for us and for our country.
“It is a time of great expectations from our people for those who govern. It is a time when public consciousness has never been more heightened and a time when information travels faster than human thought, certainly faster than human mind can comprehend.
“It is also a time when competition between facts and perceptions have never been more indistinguishable. It’s also a time when demand for greater transparency and accountability is no longer just a process but deeply embedded in the very ideal of governance.
“It is also a time when political communication must be and become more intentional, not only in substance but also in the attentiveness to the sensibilities of the audiences. But it is also a time of great hope in our country, a time when a leader, a president elected by the people, has come along with hope and willing to enact hope into existence for every citizen of our country,” he noted.
