A former governor of Kano, Ibrahim Shekarau, has said the newly formed coalition of opposition leaders lacks the capacity to defeat the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2027 general election.
In a statement made available to newsmen by his spokesman, Sule Yau, the former governor insisted that contrary to the claim, the figures are a ‘mere coalition of prospective presidential/vice presidential aspirants’.
He added that the proponents of the coalition are doing so in their individual capacity without consulting their political party.
“The coming together of some very senior members of some opposition parties is a very welcome development, as seen recently under what they call ‘coalition’ of opposition parties. But unfortunately, most people do not know that the claimed coalition move has nothing to do with the ‘major opposition parties’ – PDP and LP. It is so far a mere coalition of prospective presidential/vice presidential aspirants. None of the principal actors is carrying the leadership of his party along.
“More so, the ‘gang-up’ of individuals, no matter their ‘big names’, can never be a ‘merger’, because, by law, only registered parties can formally and officially merge,” he said.
Mr Shekarau, who is also a co-convener of the League of National Democrats, asserted that the National Assembly’s affirmation of President Bola Tinubu’s ‘state of emergency’ in River State has exposed the fact that the characters in the ‘coalition’ have no control over the opposition parties in the National Assembly.
“What happened at the National Assembly on March 20, 2025, in respect of the ‘State of Emergency’ in Rivers State, has exposed the characters in the ‘coalition’ that they had no control over the opposition parties in the National Assembly. For, if they did, the APC government could not have garnered the required number of votes to pass the law sent to the National Assembly by President Tinubu,” he added.
He also recalled how a similar coalition was formed in the buildup up to the 2019 general election with the hope of defeating the APC.
He, however, said the coalition amounted to nothing because the then PDP-elected leaders at all levels were not carried along.
“I remember the 2019 ‘coalition’ was formally launched almost a year to the 2019 elections at Yar’adua Center, and where none of the then elected PDP leaders was in attendance.
“Accordingly, no amount of noise-making or coming together by individual characters [aspirants] in the name of opposition will make any impact at elections until and unless the full structure of leadership at all levels of the opposition parties are carried along. For example, there is no way you will be talking of PDP going into coalition when none of its twelve elected governors and hundreds of its elected legislators across the country are involved.
“The mistake some of the characters in the current ‘coalition’ move are making is that, they believe the 2023 votes are still there in their pockets, and need only to put them together and win the next election. This is the peak of naivety. Remember, in 2015, the PDP had more ‘big names’ plus sitting governments at Federal, state and local levels, yet it lost the election, because all the merging parties that produced the APC carried along all their entire structure at all levels into the ‘coalition’ (merger). Hence, defeating APC in 2027 is far beyond just the mere coming together of ‘big names’ (aspirants),” he added.
