The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to a potential alliance between New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) leader Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
While speaking during an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, Bala Ibrahim, the spokesman of the APC said that the proposed alliance is bound to fail.
Ibrahim referenced the failed attempt to unite both candidates in the lead-up to the 2023 election, attributing the collapse to a lack of trust between Obi and Kwankwaso.
He noted that both politicians have presidential ambitions, and neither is likely to step aside for the other.
“A lack of trust will always be an issue between Obi and Kwankwaso, and neither of them will be willing to concede their ambition to become President,” Ibrahim stated.
This is coming after Kwankwaso last weekend hinted at a possible collaboration with Peter Obi, expressing his willingness to run as Obi’s vice-presidential candidate in 2027, under certain undisclosed conditions.
Moreover, Umar Farouk, the National Secretary of the Labour Party, responded impressively to the proposal, noting that the merger could work if Kwankwaso showed humility in his partnership with the former governor of Anambra State.
Meanwhile, despite this, the APC remains confident that the proposed alliance will fail just as it did in 2023.
Ibrahim said, “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.”
Also, the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Abdullahi Ibrahim, described the proposed Obi-Kwankwaso alliance as a welcome development.
Ibrahim told The PUNCH that the PDP would support any talks on an alliance or merger that would liberate Nigerians from the current hardship and the grip of the APC-led government.
He said, “It is a welcome development. We were the ones who started the discussion at the instance of the PDP, when the major opposition figures met to review the state of the nation. If there is anything we expect from the opposition going forward, it is for them to close ranks and ensure they chart a common cause, whether it is the Peter Obi-led Labour Party, Kwankwaso’s NNPP, or the PDP that is prepared to lead the direction.
“At least, we are the major opposition and have been in power before at the center for 16 years. Presently, we have 13 governors including the FCT (under Nyesom Wike), making it 14. As of the last count, Wike has still not declared his intention to leave the PDP. So, on account of these things, we are still the major opposition party in the country and for that reason, we are charting the course.
“As earlier said, it is commendable regardless of the fact that it is not our political party. It is in the interest of this country for those who have the wherewithal to ensure they salvage the people from despair and despondency, which seem to have taken over the land. Of course, Nigerians no longer want these people in power and can’t wait to see the back of the APC because of the insensitivity that characterizes their way of doing things.”