Tony Akeni, Labour Party national publicity secretary, on Sunday, revealed that major opposition parties are collaborating to field the best and most acceptable candidates in 2027.
Akeni said such coalition strategy is aimed at defeating the current ‘one party state’ strategy currently being pursued by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
He stated that the opposition parties are fully aware that it will be difficult for one single opposition party to defeat President Bola Tinubu in 2027 presidential election
“Without defecting, the understanding involves the Labour Party and PO meeting and engaging in broad-base multi-party liaison with all well-meaning opposition political parties. These include the ADC itself, PDP and also large unseen bodies of critical APC stakeholders across the various geopolitical zones of our country who are talking with the Labour Party.
“It is a settled consensus of the leadership of the Labour Party that a single opposition political party, including the LP, facing elections against Tinubu’s APC tyranny in 2027 may come short of victory. This is for apparent and well-known reasons.
“Our party’s view is therefore that a rainbow coalition of multi-party colours carrying along Nigeria’s ballot population, driven by a common unifying electorate mobilisation, is what Nigerians need to sack APC and President Tinubu’s dictatorship out of power in 2027 and rescue our country from the APC’s apparent goal of one-party state capture.
“This is the patriotic manual that our party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, His Excellency Peter Obi, is working with, and we as Labour Party are one with him in it.”
He revealed that it is the party’s well considered proposition that a time will come that a confluence of all the progressive opposition political forces will emerge to take certain critical decisions. These include who the coalition shall field on the 2027 presidential ticket.”
Another result of the above strategy will be the grand coalition “adopting the most viable and potential ballot winning governorship candidate in each state of the federation, irrespective of political party platform or flag.”
He noted that this is how the practice and beauty of multi-party democracy, which the current APC tyranny under President Tinubu is determined to stamp out and destroy, will be restored.
“This is the wisdom guiding our 2023 presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi not to declare defection to or outrightly enlist membership of ADC, PDP or any other political platform than the only one he can truly call his own, the Labour Party. Rhodes Vivour should have followed the footsteps of his master. That is what Labour Party had expected him to do if he were reading well the signs on the wall.”
Akeni, while also reacting to the recent defection of Rhodes Gbadebo Vivour, the party’s Lagos state governorship candidate in 2023, described it as ‘hasty,’ adding that the action shows that “he still has a lot to learn.”
“By jumping the gun and hastily jumping boats, Vivour has shown, from our viewpoint, that he is still has to learn some imperative essentials in his young political journey. Politicians who genuinely mean to serve their people should learn to hurry slowly.”
