2027: APC-style coalition won’t work against Tinubu – PDP chieftain Sowunmi

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, has dismissed the possibility of replicating the 2013 coalition strategy that birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a means to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the upcoming 2027 elections.

Speaking during an interview with The PUNCH, Sowunmi argued that the political landscape has evolved significantly since 2015, when the APC successfully unseated then-President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The dynamics are not the same,” Sowunmi said. “In 2013, political parties were willing to surrender their identities and come together for a common goal. That’s not the case today.”

He emphasized that none of the current opposition parties appear ready to subsume their names or identities under a coalition banner, as was done in 2013 when parties like the ACN, CPC, and ANPP merged to form the APC.

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He said, “People are unnecessarily assuming that a direct replica of what happened in 2015 is what will unseat the APC. I hold the very strong and well-considered view that the times are different. It is so different from what happened in 2015 that no one interested in politics should be blind-sighted by the fact that there is no political party in Nigeria today that is going to happily deregister itself for the purpose of any coalition.

“The PDP is going to go into an election welcoming anybody who wants to join our platform as a member of our party, opening ourselves up to receive as many great Nigerian people as possible. Certainly, the Peoples Democratic Party, a party that was registered in 1998 and has a lot of governors, will never go down because of the ambition of anybody. I also doubt that the Labour Party will be willing to go that route too. I also do not know whether the NNPP will be willing to go that route with anybody.”

Furthermore, the Ogun State politician disagreed with the notion that with different political heavyweights combining forces, they would amass more votes than the APC.

“Their numbers may be independently big but they are also mutually exclusive in certain considerations. Those who will give Segum numbers may not give Raheem the numbers. Those who will give Raheem may not give Segun. To combine Segun and Raheem, you cannot strictly say that Rameem and Segun will get the same numbers they got individually,” Sowunmi said.

According to him, the old politicians planning a coalition will also have a hard time convincing Nigerians to vote for them because they are not a new set of people that Nigerians do not know.

“Nigerians are going to be forced to review their previous activities, especially when they are not new people that are unknown. So, if the same of same now package themselves as new people, I can guarantee you, that they may not, with due respect, succeed.

“Will the APC members be sleeping on the election day while these people, we don’t know the name they are going to call their party, just get all the votes? They will end up just being one more party. Whatever they cannot do with the PDP, they cannot do with LP, they cannot do with NNPP, they cannot do with APGA, they cannot do with AA, they cannot do with SDP, what are they then going to do with this one?

“Another area I see challenge, knowing them, is that they are going to be planning to deceive one another because each of them has presidential ambition. When you drag them into a coalition of some sort, who is then going to be the presidential candidate? Who is going to be the vice?” he added.

(Punch)