By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Meanwhile, the APC says it is not losing sleep over the alleged merger plans of the opposition and the likelihood of an Obi- Kwankwaso ticket in 2027. Deputy national publicity secretary of the party, Bala Ibrahim told a national daily last week that the proposed alliance was headed for failure just as it did prior to last year’s presidential election. He predicted that just as was the case in the build up to the 2023 presidential, Obi and Kwankwaso will again bicker and disagree and will not concede to each other.
“The underlying and most important factor in that permutation is the word trust, which will be the bane of their agreement. These are experiments that have been conducted several times, and the results cannot be expected to change unless the factor responsible for that result changes. If you don’t change the factor and you carry out the same experiment under the same condition, expecting a different result, you are only deceiving yourself. This is a scientific procedure.
“Now, Kwankwaso and Peter Obi have tried forming an alliance in the past on several occasions, but their romance didn’t last beyond the bedroom. This is because they are strange bedfellows who can’t sleep in the same room. Both of them have one ambition—to lead the country at all costs—and neither is willing to surrender the seat to the other simply because there is this superiority complex between them.
“As long as that complex exists, and it is not likely to diminish, there is not going to be any change to warrant the APC having sleepless nights. What they are proposing now is just rhetoric because they are seeing the progress the APC is making and the changes happening in the political scene. They know that come 2027, the victory of the APC is fait accompli. All they are making is just noise to survive. It is also the ranting of a party destined for doom. So, there is nothing there to give the APC any worry at all. It is a merger that won’t come to pass”, Ibrahim said.
The Labour Party on the other hand has described Kwankwaso’s offer as well thought out.
According to the party’s national secretary, Umar Farouk, LP was prepared to partner with Kwankwaso and the NNPP for the purpose of edging the APC out of power in 2027 and free Nigerians from the grip of poverty and hardship. The party however, appealed to Kwankwaso not to torpedo the merger plans with his boast of political superiority over Obi.
Said Farouk: “As a political party, we stand for good governance and we have equally given all our candidates, both former and serving ones, the opportunity to choose how to associate with people of like-minds who share the philosophy and ideology of the Labour Party.
“We are happy Kwankwaso has alighted from the high horse he was riding and willing to offer himself to Obi as deputy having seen he garnered more than six million votes at the 2023 election. With his so-called popularity in the North, Kwankwaso could only amass less than two million votes.
“Again, he should stop this talk of being a bigger politician and PhD holder. What did he even do as a minister of defence? This is why we advise politicians to always consider the dynamics of politics to gauge the temperament of the electorate at a particular time.
“Of course, we know what played out in 2023 will be different from 2027. It will be in the interest of Nigerians if Obi and Kwankwaso are willing to come together and wrest power from the APC government. But again, we know the sitting government will not go to sleep and allow the renewed move to work.”