Despite Distractions, Opposition Vows To Unseat Ruling APC

0

LAGOS – The opposition parties have vowed to unseat the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 presidential election, despite what they described as plot by the ruling party to continue to import crises into their parties.

Chief Peter Ameh, Na­tional Chairman of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP); Mallam Bolaji Ab­dulahi, National Publicity Secretary of the African Dem­ocratic Congress (ADC), and Justice Uhuegbu, South East zonal chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who spoke with Daily Independent are of the view that democracy must be allowed to thrive and the APC hasn’t performed well and as such doesn’t deserve re­election.

According to Ameh, once campaign starts the opposition parties will get involved and at the end of the day win the elec­tion because the APC hasn’t got anything to campaign with.

He maintained that the rul­ing party is busy planting cri­ses in other parties because it is afraid of the outcome of the election, stressing that the nar­rative that opposition is divided is a product of the APC.

He said, “Parties in the opposition are strategically meeting. They’re conducting their affairs privately, which is something that strategy en­tails. And then they’re eager to participate in the election. Even today, the APC doesn’t know if most of its candidates will appear on the ballot. Be­cause INEC has rejected their proposal to illegally substitute some of their candidates in the desperate need to reshuffle their strength across state lines.

“So, no party that won’t have its own encumbrances. And when you look at the one that is confronting the opposition, it’s artificial creation by those who are afraid of the upcoming elec­tion. I say this because there’s no foundation for some of these crises. If you look at some of the historical lining of these crises in some of the parties, where somebody will wake up and say that the non-existent entity wants to challenge the logo of a registered political party. So, these are not something that we should be worried about, except if there’s an attempt by those who wield state power to undermine our collective par­ticipation in the process, to un­dermine the pluralism and the multiplicity of opportunities created by a multi-party dem­ocratic system. If not for that, no need for anybody to panic, no need for anybody to worry.

“There are so many obvious factors why I don’t think that people are really panicking about official participation. And also, those funny narra­tives being created, oh, opposi­tions are divided. Oppositions are not divided. You can have ten candidates and a winner will still emerge.

“What we should concen­trate on and what should be the concern of every well-meaning Nigerian is whether the elec­tion will be transparent.

“Will INEC stick to its oath of office and the constitutional authority that is given to them to conduct elections for all per­sons based on equal grounds? Will there not be partisanship running through the commis­sion?

“I don’t think the election is more unstable than the APC currently with the gov­ernment that has performed woefully, that has failed, that cannot account for $8.8 mil­lion, cannot account for how the Office of Presidential For­eign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) approved by them, funded by them, or fixed by them. They cannot account for all these. So, they’re the ones under pressure and using their instruments of state to drive narratives that are not real. Once the campaign starts and elections take place APC won’t return because it has nothing to campaign on.”

According to Bolaji Abdula­hi, the main issue is not wheth­er the election will be competi­tive but if election will hold.

He said that once election holds the ruling party will not return because it has failed Ni­gerians.

Uhuegbu harped on the importance of opposition in a democratic setting, condemn­ing the APC for refusing to acknowledge the role of the opposition in the development of any nation.

He said, “You need to be democratic as a person for you to allow democracy to exist. Because as a president, a gov­ernor, a senator, even as an indi­vidual, if you’re not democratic as a person, you cannot support democracy. So you must have this culture and discipline as an individual to be able to be democratic before you can allow opposition to exist. Un­fortunately, the ruling party doesn’t even understand that they can never perform better without opposition. So if you’re proposing one party system, which is what they’ve been trying to do, it means you’re not doing well as a government. Any country that is practising one party system, that country doesn’t develop. And if actually Nigeria gets to head to that, it is a doom. If you’re sure of your performance as a party in gov­ernment, why are you afraid of election? If you have delivered, Nigerians will vote for you but because they’ve performed woefully, they’re afraid of the opposition and going about planting chaos in other par­ties. The election of 2027 will be hard for them no matter how they try to manipulate it.”