The ruling All Progressives Congress has boasted that no alliance of the opposition leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra Governor Peter Obi, will be potent enough to stop President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
The statement was made by the National Publicity Director of APC, Bala Ibrahim, in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday.
Ibrahim was reacting to a statement by Atiku’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, that both his principal and his Labour Party counterpart had learnt their lessons in the last general elections and would unite to kick out the “incompetent and clueless” administration of the APC.
According to him, the combined votes of the two leaders, which would have amounted to 12 million, should have been enough to stop the President and prevent the hardship he has meted out to Nigerians.
Ibe expressed his views on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Reactions have trailed the interview with major opposition agreeing that a coalition of forces or merger could indeed defeat the APC in the same manner as the one witnessed in 2015 when former President Muhammadu Buhari defeated a sitting President, Goodluck Jonathan.
When contacted, Obi’s media aide, Umar Ibrahim, emphasised that his principal was committed to a better Nigeria and would be willing to collaborate with anyone who shared his vision, as long as their desire isn’t state capture.
Reacting to the possibility of a coalition between Atiku and Obi’s group to defeat the APC, he stated that in addition to a coalition, Nigerians must demand that elections be decided and concluded at the polling unit.
He added, “Yes, a coalition can help the opposition party defeat the APC. There’s no doubt about that. It will also facilitate the easy defeat of the APC.
“But the most important coalition we need at this moment is one that ensures elections are free and fair. Because if we do that, even when people form a coalition, we still face the problem of draconian leadership that can cause glitches in the server, or manipulate election results without proper authority behind it. The solution is that our elections should be decided by the polling unit.
“The Republic of Ghana has shown this. If you look at the commission chairperson, votes are cast at the polling unit, votes are recorded at the polling unit, and winners are announced at the polling unit. We should do away with these coalition centres, which are fraudulent centres for the manipulation of results.
“We still believe that when the people are determined and stay true to their convictions, the electorate will go to the polling unit and make their decision. But a coalition will only facilitate and make it easier for the opposition to reach the Presidency.”
