A former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State, Dr Ben Nwoye, says Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, “is looking for a new home in the purported merger because LP is on fire”.....Read The Full Story Here ▶
Our correspondent reports that Obi, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, and Senator Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party met recently in Abuja where Atiku promised to support Obi if PDP makes him its presidential candidate in 2027
Nwoye, who spoke in Enugu on Monday, said President Bola Tinubu is not worried about the move because “history does not repeat itself.” In his view, the meeting of the trio “is a cheap imitation of the merger of Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, and All Nigeria Peoples Party which birthed APC that ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan of PDP in 2015.”
He said for the planned merger to succeed, Atiku, Kwankwaso and Obi needed to do more. According to him, “PDP with factions of Mr Nyesome Wike, Atiku Abubakar and northern elite is already balkanised.”
He advised Obi to remain in LP “which he renovated and further galvanise the Obidient Movement”, adding that, “The structure of PDP is dead. Atiku should not fool any south-easterner that he has any interest of an Igbo man becoming the president of Nigeria in 2027.”
He said Obi’s posture as the leader of the opposition in Nigeria is a joke because “he is an outsider”. In his view, “The opposition should come from inside the chambers of the National Assembly and state Houses of Assemblies. Obi is just rhetoric. He is an entertainer. He is preparing himself for the 2027 presidential election.”
He, however, regretted the dearth of opposition in the politics of Nigeria, admitting that opposition is the life wire of the government. With the National Assembly comprising lawmakers from different political parties, Nwoye said, “I had expected robust debates. At the federal level, you see lawmakers cross-carpeting. It is indeed funny. Do we really have any opposition, or people simply pursuing their personal interests?”
On the recent defection of six lawmakers of LP to the PDP at the Enugu State House of Assembly which made the hitherto majority LP the minority, Nwoye said, “LP has been diminished in the state. But at least, let the remaining few be talking. Let their voices be heard. What we have is paper opposition.”
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