A new coalition has been unveiled to stop President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from winning the 2027 presidential election.
Some of the arrowheads of the coalition are: former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was the PDP presidential candidate in 2023; former governor of Anambra, Peter Obi, who was the Labour Party presidential candidate in the last election and former governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who recently dumped the ruling APC for the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
At a meeting of key opposition leaders in Abuja, on Thursday, Atiku, pointedly said the coalition will unseat President Tinubu in 2027.
Prompt News reports that the presser addressed by Atiku was convened to condemn the declaration of a State of Emergency by the President in the crisis-ridden Rivers state.
“Yes, this is the birth of the coalition of opposition ahead of 2027,” Atiku said while reacting to a question on whether would serve as the main opposition to the ruling APC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Those present at the event included the 2023 Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who was represented by Dr Yunusa Tanko; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal; former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai; a former gubernatorial hopeful in Ogun State, Segun Sowunmi; former Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Lukman; Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri, Chief Peter Ameh and Soni Monidafe, among others.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders have expressed reservations, asking how leaders with differing ideologies, ambitions, and party affiliations can work together to fulfil their promise to Nigerians.
A prominent member of the 8th Senate, who was part of the coalition that ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, said that the recent realignments in the political space might not work
“The first problem is that they are talking about forming a coalition and not a merger to form a strong political party. This is not what happened ahead of 2015 general election and based on my understanding, this will not work.
“Secondly, for you to remove a sitting president like Tinubu, you need to have a strong leadership, just like what happened in 2013 ahead of the merger when despite our differences we all agreed from the onset that Muhammadu Buhari will be the leader and our potential presidential candidate.
“We all worked along that direction and in the movement, we have strong people including serving governors, technocrats and other people with serious influence in the society,” the source said.
He said after projecting themselves as a single force with firm control over their political parties, they approached the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the registration of APC.
“We achieved all these ahead of the 2015 election and during the primaries, Buhari emerged as the candidate of the APC and we collectively mobilised resources and confronted Jonathan and we defeated him with the massive support from Nigerians.
“Unfortunately, the people that are working to have a coalition now are racing against time, they mostly have personal ambitions. They are also coming on the back of their various political parties. I wonder how this will work in their favour. It is very unlikely to defeat Tinubu with this arrangement.
“Look at how he worked his way ahead of 2023 to get the APC ticket. Now that he has access to enormous resources and the instrument of authority, it will take more than a coalition to defeat him,” DAILY TRUST quoted a prominent member of the 8th Senate as saying.
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