In the calculations of many pundits ahead of the 2027 presidential election, it is only the emergence of a new political force that will provide the desired magic wand the opposition parties needed to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Several political commentators have equally suggested that the willingness of the opposition heavyweights to collapse their structures into one, strong, and united political alliance would be the potent weapon to destabilise the APC-led government from consolidating its strongholds on the presidency beyond 2027.

The clamour for the emergence of the new political alignment is obviously not new in the political trajectory of Nigeria democratic experiment, especially as the ruling party, the APC, rode to power through the wave of a merger by many major political parties.

Curiously, the ruling party is alleged to be fuelling and sponsoring the endless leadership crises rocking almost all the opposition political parties in its determination to weaken them from producing formidable candidates to battle the presidential contest with the ruling party.

Although many APC chieftains had exonerated the ruling party from any complicity and involvement in fomenting trouble among the leaderships of the opposition parties, only very few politically exposed Nigerians would however, believe that APC is innocent.

Interestingly, the more the ruling party tried to wriggle out of the allegations, instances of several elected political office holders defecting from the opposition parties and flocking into the APC, mostly on flimsy reasons of crises in their parties compelling their decision, tend to confirm the allegations that APC is on a mission to ?destabilise, cripple and drastically reduce the strengths of any opposition party from posing any form of threat? during the 2027 presidential election.

But, dismissing the allegations of sponsoring crises in the opposition, the party?s National Welfare Secretary, Donatus Nwankpa, told Daily Sun that there was no iota of truth in the claim, insisting that he ought to be in a position to know if there is such thing.

Asked about the involvement of APC in the crises rocking the opposition parties, Nwankpa fumed: ?Yes of course I can stake my neck. Why I can, is that as the National Welfare Secretary of APC, I have not been given funds to sponsor anything concerning the crises in the opposition. That is starting from the known to the unknown.

?I have not personally researched to establish whether there is such sponsorship, and it has not come to my knowledge either. I am only speaking from the standpoint of sincerity. I have not been anywhere that money was shared to fuel the crises in the opposition party. I have not also been where it has been discussed.

?The problem of political parties in Nigeria is the ego of who is to be on the driver?s seat and who will surrender for the other to be in the front. When two are riding on an uncontrollable empirical personal ego, don?t expect an escapee approach by giving them the credit,? he added.

However, despite his claims, some chieftains of the opposition parties still believe that APC is not only economical with the truth but also guilty as charged in the allegations of sponsoring the crises to weaken other parties.

For the National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Chief Peter Ameh, he said ?the APC is doing so much to balkanise multi-party system. There have been such accusations from all other parties and from what they do. Otherwise, why are all the members of Labour Party (LP) at the National Assembly defecting to the APC, even those from Plateau which is a PDP governing State?

?It is to show that APC must have promised to give them as much as the ruling party. They intimidate them with State-controlled power and authority, especially as there are no longer free and fair elections. Many people will not have taken the promises made to them, if there were no such promise.

?Promises like giving them national cover with the apparatus of state operation, which doesn?t work when there is a free and fair election,? he claimed.

However, from Ameh to the former APC National Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, among others, all seem to be in sync in proposing that the country needs a viable political force to whittle down the dominance of the APC.

Weighing in on the proposal and confirming a possible political force in the offing, Ameh noted: ?I know that the opposition, with the kind of ongoing internal arrangements, will get it right, and 2027 will be more different. We will have a more robust opposition than what we had in 2023.?

Also, in his advocacy for a new political force, Lukman, a former APC National Working Committee (NWC) member, recently wrote; ?As Nigerians, we must rise to this challenge and make the defeat of APC and President Tinubu not only possible in 2027 but most importantly guarantee the election of truly democratic leaders, not emperors.

?The only way it could be possible is if as Nigerians, we can focus ourselves with producing a functional political party that will respect its own rules. Certainly, such a functional political party must be distinctively different from APC, PDP, LP, NNPP, and all the existing registered political parties in the country.

?But, there in lie the difficult challenge. How can such a party be produced and by who? Is it a new party, which will apply for registration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)? Will it be granted registration? If not, what are the options?? Lukman asked.

Arguing further, he noted that; ?the other related question is whether such a party will be formed by the same politicians who were associated with APC and PDP, and in many respects, people who could be adjudged to be responsible for getting Nigeria to this messy situation.

?The unfortunate reality is that our political structures now only make it possible for politicians to present their negative sides, which is, largely because political competition is completely compromised,? he lamented.

Although the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and other political figures may have, last year, indicated interest and willingness to collaborate, with many thinking that by now they would be solidifying the arrangements, their comments in the recent past however confirmed that they were only merely doing the usual political rhetoric.

For example, Kwankwaso, last year, had hinted at the possibility of serving as Obi?s vice presidential candidate in the forthcoming 2027 elections, only for him to recant recently that he would have nothing to do with either Obi or Atiku.

He had said: ?I have no problem with deputising Peter Obi, but only if certain conditions are met. We are willing to engage in discussions, provided that trust is established.?

However, only a few days ago, Kwankwaso surprisingly ruled out completely any prospect of collaboration and power-sharing deal with either Atiku or Obi, citing a lack of trust as the major re4ason for his action.

While dismissing what he described as increasing speculations about a 2027 pact with Atiku and Obi, Kwankwaso said ?I got information from sources purporting that former Vice President Atiku and I have met. But what I know is that nobody contacted me and I have not spoken with Atiku.

?Also, I have not spoken with Peter Obi? The most annoying thing is that some people in the PDP told a group of about 45 (Islamic) scholars that there is a consensus that Atiku would rule for four years, Kwankwaso would subsequently rule for four years and Peter Obi, for eight years; this is a lie, it is not true.

?This has infuriated me: why is it that elder statesmen in their 70s, 80s, will be spreading such lies to these scholars about something that has never existed? Such statements and deceits were part of things that made me and some other people to leave the party (PDP) and now they have destabilised the party,? he added.

Kwankwaso further recalled that the desperate and selfish agenda of certain PDP leaders forced him and Obi out of the party, stressing that a similar scenario is being re-enacted in a bid to manipulate sentiments and corner the support of the North.

Foreclosing the possibility of any alliance, Kwankwaso said ?For me to accept any alliance arrangements, we have to go back to history; I understand PDP in totality. I know that they plan to procure a party or be beating around the bush in other parties, bringing us together to make northerners vote for them.

?But what we are asking them is: what have they done for the North before?? These are the kinds of things that will come into play.?

Surprisingly, Kwankwaso is not alone in his blunt refusal to be part of the coalition, as Obi, had recently dismissed any alleged merger deals with either the PDP, the NNPP or any other party.

Speaking at a press conference recently, Obi said: ?No to the issue of merger, everybody who means well should come together to get the country to work. Let us build this country. None of us is going to be here forever. Those who did it yesterday are no longer here. The country is collapsing.?

With confirmations from the major political actors foreclosing the possibility of any merger ahead of the 2027 presidential election, it is only time that will tell how those plotting to dislodge the APC will do it. (Daily Sun)

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