It is official: Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso are exploring a potential coalition which will make their two parties – Labour Party and New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) – come together. Apart from Buhari and maybe two other people in the North, Kwankwaso has unrivaled electoral value. When he moves, political battalion follows: “It is true we are in talks with Peter Obi and a committee is working to look into how to form a merger between us. Friends and family are being up and doing talking about the merger arrangement,” Mr Kwankwaso.
If this happens, this will become an offensive playbook, not just defensive. The implication will be that NorthWest opens up for the duo. They already have the largest geopolitical zone in Nigeria – the YOUTH.
A real merger is not possible due to timing; it is too late to dissolve or form a new party now for the 2023 elections. But they can have a coalition where the two parties decide on who to vote for in each contest.
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If INEC keeps this game free and fair, Nigeria can have a great 2023. APC is strategizing. PDP is doing the same thing. NNPP/LP combo are possibly coming together. May the best vision win for Nigeria!
(Meanwhile, Obi and Tinubu have selected, respectively, Doyin Okupe and Kabiru Masari as vice presidential placeholders. PDP, we believe, has actually made the final decision on Delta State’s governor, Okowa)
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Saturday, said his party is discussing with the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on the possibility of forming a coalition for next year’s general election.
“It is true we are in talks with Peter Obi and a committee is working to look into how to form a merger between us.
“Friends and family are being up and doing talking about the merger arrangement,” Mr Kwankwaso added.
The merger is important because as you can see both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not pick their running mates from the South-east, Mr Kwankwaso said.
Mr Kwankwaso’s NNPP has a large following in the north of the country, particularly the north-west while Mr Obi recently defected from the PDP and joined the Labour Party. He has endeared himself to large youth following in the south of the country.
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Political oratory is unique, why? Because you do not need to prove anything, rather the facts are what your audiences say they are.
Winning 2023 is not really about who has structures or who’s more capable, the facts in those arguments are simply what the supporters say they are, so it’s a waste of time trying to prove something.
Just gather more supporters than your opponents, and you are winning.
The truth is that both APC and PDP are laying claim to largely the same set of votes, ask them to draw their respective electoral winning maps, you will see lots of overlapping.
The candidates with what you can even term a unique set of supporters are those of LP and NNPP, the only puzzle is how big are their supporters?
The APC and PDP cannot be winning at the same time, so if both of them truly feel strong about their chances, then they will end up cancelling out each other, leaving the other two with a good chance of equally being within the finish line.
This is not the type of election where one party will poll 20 million votes, and the second one polling 10 million votes, with the rest getting 1 million, 4 hundred thousand, etc. No number modelling currently shows such possibilities.
We have some interesting months ahead.
Nigeria is dead. It doesn’t matter who wins the elections. Not Peter, Kwankwaso, Atiku, Tinubu ( I am not a fan of this candidate for my own reserved reservations) nor any other washed up down trodden, unheard of party can save this “country” from the precipice. Nigeria is still set to remain a horrible place to live in till the end of this century. By the way, for those that do not understand, that means that 78 years from this year, being 2022, Nigeria is still going to be in the unenviable position of the world’s poverty capital. 78 years. If I were you, I would forget all hope that you have probably garnered for this useless country, (mind you, i said country, the geological formation which we now call Nigeria is a land of opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I love geological Nigeria, but honestly the constructed fallacy sewed together by the self-interested British colonialists was a mistake, and one worthy of the highest level of condemnation). If I were you, I would hop on the next plane to Canada.