By Peregba Jerry
Political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has said the presidential candidates of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, and New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, have agreed to form a mega party that would wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2027.
Utomi disclosed this in an interview on Channels TV on Sunday night.
Asked if Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi and Okey Nwosu have agreed to come together, Utomi simply said “yes.”
On what name they had decided to call the coalition. Utomi said: “We’re not talking about names yet. Besides, these politicians I mentioned, I’m talking about leaders of social movements, the labour movement and so on.
“I have even been part of creating a new tribe, Nigerians who are committed to certain values, who say I will not give a bribe; I will not take a bribe. And you can then create a set of values that can lead to progress in the country.
“The way we are today, a few people in the world are willing to engage with Nigeria. They think there’s a collapse of culture and values in Nigeria. You can’t trust Nigerians. All kinds of things are here. It’s a clean start.
“It’s a really clean start. You have to start from the premise that Nigeria has not had a political party since 1999.
“Let’s be very honest with ourselves, what we have managed is to create platforms that enable machine politics from which to grab power, usually for state capture.
“If you want to test that, check how much the quality of life of a Nigerian has improved since 1999.
“It’s frightening but the truth of the matter is that in 1999, a political class managed to build a certain coalition of accommodation to keep the military out and share the spoils of power.
“Somehow, they did not manage to create an alignment with the Nigerian people to improve the quality of their lives. This is why you can see Nigeria deteriorating, becoming the poverty capital of the world, becoming the centre of widespread violence.”
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