By Tony Adibe
A former Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has explained reasons the recent calls for merger by opposition political parties to oust the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won’t work out as it lacked proper contextual foundation and dynamism.
Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, said this on Sunday in Enugu while reacting to the recent much talked about merger as trumpeted by Prof. Pat Utomi and former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Okechukwu was also commenting on the recent presidential election in Senegal.
NewsBits recalls that there has been strident calls for merger by Utomi, Atiku and a host of others of major opposition parties while congratulating Bassirou Faye, Senegalese President-elect, for repeating the feat achieved by the ruling APC in 2015. The former VON boss, who was a member of the merger committee that mid-wifed APC into a formidable opposition in 2013, said there are many reasons to dismiss outright these recent merger calls and the erroneous premises on which they were anchored.
He said: “First of all, on the possibility that the persistent call for opposition political parties to forge a formidable coalition to oust the APC like the PDP was defeated in 2015; the circumstances and dynamism on the ground differ remarkably.
“Secondly, dethroning an incumbent President should not be a political pastime, but as a practical political consciousness to remove an underperforming administration. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sure and steady is performing and there is more allocations to state governments.”
According to him, the difference in socio-economic situation of Nigeria between 2015 and 2024 is clear, stressing that while in 2015, Nigeria lost focus; today, in spite of the socio-economic hardship, both the international and local communities agree that Tinubu’s administration has courage, vision and focus.
He further said: “yes, my understanding is that Atiku was referring to the current socio-economic hardship, but the truth is that whether you like it or not President Tinubu has focus.”
Okechukwu further said: “In 2015, under President Goodluck Jonathan, there was little or no hope. “Luckily, President Tinubu has with his economic reforms, won the confidence of the international community. All he needs is to domesticate his economic programme to benefit the greatest number of Nigerians.”
Commenting on the possibility that the merger taunted by opposition political parties to forge a formidable coalition to oust the APC like the PDP was defeated in 2015 come true, Okechukwu said circumstances and dynamism on the ground make that a hectic tall order.
Okechukwu said that although as a political scientist, he believes that formidable opposition coalition is healthy tonic for Nigeria’s democracy; however, it is incumbent on Atiku, Utomi and co-travellers to convince Nigerians on which economic philosophy the coalition would be anchored upon.
He said: “Nigerians know that all the leading presidential candidates in 2023 were all neo-liberals. For instance, like President Tinubu, Atiku and Peter Obi agreed to remove fuel subsidy and to harmonise the foreign exchange rate.
“Since they all belong to the neo-liberal school of thought and are capitalists; they better support President Tinubu because the success of Tinubu’s economic reforms is better for such students more than those of us who subscribe to the belief that government has business in our welfare.”
Okechukwu, however, argued that in the face of the current excruciating economic hardship driving majority of Nigerians into abject poverty, even President Tinubu appreciates the suffering, but assured that “there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
The APC Chieftain also said: “There are two things going positively for President Tinubu. One is that the buy-in of the international community is high, which means that foreign direct investment which propels prosperity is guaranteed in the course of time.
“Secondly, unlike President Muhammadu Buhari, whose rising tide of expectations was high at inception on issues like anti-graft war and economic empowerment, that of Tinubu is starkly low. This is to say that not much was expected from President Tinubu from the onset. The bottom-line is that he will garner local buy-in with time instead of declining expectations.”
The politician reminded merger canvassers to study the large-hearted political engineering that enabled opposition to take over in Senegal. Okechukwu recounted how in 2014, Ousmane Sonko invited his friend and fellow tax collector, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and other emergent political actors to form a political party – PASTEF (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity).
He said that PASTEF or Patriots of Senegal, which was led by Sonko, was dominated by young Senegalese with Faye serving as the Secretary-General while Sonko was the leader.
“I want to inform the former Vice President that in 2017, although PASTEF only secured only one seat out of 165 in the Legislative election, in 2019, Sonko contested as the Presidential candidate, while Faye was his campaign manager. Then, three years later, PASTEF garnered 56 out of the 165 seats contested at the National Assembly election. The 2022 election showed that Sonko has emerged as a strong contender for the 2024 Presidential poll.
“Sonko and Faye were jailed and released by President Macky Sall less than 12 days to the election, Sanko endorsed Faye as his presidential candidate and Senegalese people joined to elect him as President,” according to Okechukwu.
He said he decided to tell the long story to convince Atiku, Utomi and co-travellers, who were with us during the APC’s merger in 2013, that the formation of broad-based political coalition is not a 100-metre dash neither can it be pulled-off by leaders that insist on being on the ballot.
“Finally, unlike Sonko who yielded space for Faye to take the Presidential ticket. Atiku’s breach of the rotation convention and blatant refusal to back either younger Obi or Nyesom Wike; hence contested against the Southern Presidential aspirants in the 2023 poll showed that he cannot walk the talk of building strong coalition,” the former VON D-G said.
