• We must market our party, Uzodimma urges APC chieftains
• Udenta: Tinubu distorting democracy, weaponising judiciary, others
• Opposition coalition against Tinubu may fail without unity, NNPP warns
• Urges Atiku to step aside for Kwankwaso ahead of 2027
Amid the gathering of opposition politicians towards galvanising a coalition to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has assured the president not to lose sleep over his re-election as his second term in office is guaranteed notwithstanding ongoing plot by the opposition.
Speaking during the special Iftar/lent dinner organised by the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) aimed at strengthening fellowship and deepening the bond of unity among governors, National Assembly members, Ministers, top government functionaries and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, he expressed the optimism that the APC would also sweep more elective seats at the 2027 polls.
Applauding the Governor Hope Uzodinma-led PGF for hosting the event, he called on party stalwarts nationwide to work in concert to achieve the objective.
He said: “Can we say amen! We will offer prayers for our party, that yes, indeed, victory shall be ours in 2027. Can we say a loud amen! And we will also pray for Mr President that his second term is assured. Can we shout a loud amen!
“So, for the party, our governors, you will grow in numbers. On our part in the parliament, ours is to continue to add the numbers to you. We just recently sent one of our own in the Senate to go and take care of Edo State. Is that not a good thing?”
On his part, Uzodinma urged his colleagues, other elected officials and chieftains to embark on aggressive marketing of the ruling party ahead of 2027 general elections.
He said: “The success of this government is our collective success; we all are marketing officers that must market this government and party. We must work for this government and celebrate it as our own, our identity is the APC, and we must be proud of it. As we confront the challenges of governance, we must deploy political evangelism to market the party.”
The governor said with 21 governors and a majority in the National Assembly, the party should not be distracted by the opposition. The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, maintained that remarkable progress has been achieved due to the bold and courageous decisions so far taken by President Tinubu-led administration.
Dignitaries at the event included governors of Ekiti, Biodun Oyebanji; Ondo, Lucky Aiyedatiwa; Edo, Monday Okpebholo; and Ebonyi, Francis Nwifuru; Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin; House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, serving and former members of the National Assembly.
Others were the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malami Nuhu Ribadu; former Kogi governor, Yahaya Bello; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, 36 states and FCT chairmen of the party and members of the Abdullahi Umar Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC).
HOWEVER, the founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prof. Udenta Udenta, on Thursday, accused the Tinubu presidency of dismantling democratic values and weaponising the judiciary, and the 1999 Constitution (as amended) against Nigerians.
Udenta, a distinguished fellow of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, said the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State was a distortion of democratic institutions by the Tinubu government.
“The system that should protect democratic governance, you are weaponising them; the judiciary, the apparatus of the state, you are distorting, diluting and transmogrifying them in a way and manner that is shutting down democratic conversations. That is what you find as the legacy of the Bola Tinubu president and his political agents,” Udenta said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
The scholar said dismantling democratic principles isn’t by shooting guns but by misusing democratic instruments like the Constitution and the judiciary. “When you abandon the foundational norms of democracy and begin to use instruments you acquired in power to dismantle the guardrails that govern the democratic system, then democracy dies.”
Udenta regretted that the quality of the lives of Nigerians in the last two years has so depreciated. He lamented widespread hunger and poverty in the land, with escalating food inflation usurping the average Nigerian’s income.
In the bid to effectively challenge President Tinubu at the polls, chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Ondo State, Peter Olagookun, has said the planned coalition by opposition leaders can only succeed in ousting the ruling party if key players form a united front.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Akure, Ondo Olagookun said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar should step aside for Rabiu Kwankwaso in the 2027 elections.
Kwankwaso, Atiku, and Peter Obi were the presidential candidates of the NNPP, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), respectively, in the 2023 presidential election, who all lost the election to Tinubu.
Since then, rumours have suggested the trio might form an alliance to challenge Tinubu in 2027, a claim Kwankwaso has denied. On March 20, Atiku said he and other opposition politicians would form a coalition to wrest power from the ruling party in 2027.
But the Ondo NNPP chairman asked opposition leaders to put aside personal ambitions and rally behind Kwankwaso as the consensus candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Peter Obi, Nasir el-Rufai, and others advocating for an opposition coalition should persuade Atiku to step aside from the 2027 presidential race,” Olagookun said.
“He should support his brother, Kwankwaso, and together they should select a strong candidate from the south as his running mate. I believe that with this arrangement, the ruling party will be unable to withstand the opposition. But without such unity, the coalition will not work; it will collapse like dust before the 2027 general election.”
Olagookun said that if Atiku steps down, history will honour him for sacrificing his ambition for the national interest. Dismissing talks of any coalition, the National Coalition for Asiwaju Mandate (NCAM) described the assemblage of Atiku with other opposition figures as “people against Nigeria.”
At a briefing on Thursday, the NCAM president, Isaac Ikpa, criticised the coalition as a gathering of “expired political relics” and “political has-beens” driven by selfish ambition rather than a genuine desire to serve the nation. The group accused Atiku, Obi, and el-Rufai, among others, of having a history of failed leadership, corruption and divisive politics.
According to Ikpa, the coalition intends to hijack power for selfish reasons and against national progress. The group urged Nigerians to reject the coalition’s “desperate attempt” to cling to power and instead support President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Similarly, on Thursday, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, Lere Olayinka, said Atiku’s plan to run for the presidency in 2027 will be his seventh failed attempt. Posting on his Facebook page, the minister’s spokesman charged Atiku to stop lying to himself after six previous failed presidential attempts.
Recall that on Wednesday, Wike’s spokesman vowed that his principal would frustrate Atiku’s 2027 presidential bid while reacting to his recent comment that he had no regrets about not picking Wike as his running mate in the 2023 presidential election. Olayinka also said Wike has no regret that Atiku ignored him and picked former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate in 2023.
Olayinka wrote: “Six unsuccessful attempts at the presidency, he won’t stop lying despite his age. 2027 will be his seventh failed attempt.” Atiku has contested for the presidency six times. He first ran in 1993, and then again in 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023.