A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has said that the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is the renewal of the Zikist alliance.
Addressing journalists in Enugu on Sunday over the announcement by Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, that APGA has officially adopted President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election, Okechukwu stated that it was a welcome development.
Soludo had said when Tinubu visited the state last week that “APGA and the All Progressives Congress (APC) would work together during the 2027 election, as both parties share a common belief in progressivism.”
Okechukwu described Governor Soludo’s move as a strategic renewal of the Zikist Alliance of the 50s, adding that when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a member of the Western House of Assembly and Malam Umaru Altine from Sokoto was elected the first mayor of Enugu City, and the NPN/NPP Alliance of the 2nd Republic, it was such an alliance that was struck.
“This is a masterstroke foundation of Nigeria which needs renewal today, instead of ultra-polarisation and ethno-nationalism. I salute Governor Soludo. This was my position back in 2003 when we elected Rt. Hon. Chuba Okadigbo as President Buhari’s vice presidential candidate; that Ndigbo should neither disengage nor put all their eggs in one PDP’s basket.
“This is especially when Ndigbo reside and invest in all the nooks and crannies of our dear country,” Okechukwu said.
Asked about the danger of a one-party state, Okechukwu brushed the hype aside, maintaining that the APC doesn’t need a one-party state to win in 2027.
He said, “I am not a fan of a one-party state; it’s antithetical to democracy. For me, sincerely, APC doesn’t need a one-party state to win the 2027 general elections. All we need is to advance Gross National Happiness. Didn’t we win the 2015, 2019, and 2023 general elections under a multi-party system?”
Okechukwu maintained that Nigeria has over ten political parties, uncountable tendencies, and cannot slide into a one-party system “when we reckon that there is a coalition in the making.”
“Yes, there’s palpable phobia of a one-party state because of the dominance of political bandits of stomach infrastructure hue in our landscape. However, a political bandit is like the proverbial Roman god Janus with two faces. I hope I am not vindicated. One is not among those who underrate the opposition and the looming coalition of different tendencies, which may return us to two dominant political parties in a multiparty system,” he added.
Reminded that two dominant political parties in a multiparty system is impossible when governors, senators, among others, are moving into the APC, Okechukwu responded in the affirmative that the governors are the political warlords on the ground; “but that the electorate are not quartered in a dormitory, therefore may not sheepishly follow the defectors as assumed.
“My takeaway lesson in my over 40 years in partisan politics is not to rate any gathering as a storm in a teacup. My candid advice to the leadership of my great party, the APC, is not to rest on the euphoria of the gale of defections. For one anticipates a gruesome electioneering campaign in 2027,” Okechukwu opined.