- Insists On Tinubu, Atiku, Obi Stepping Aside
A former chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) Kenneth Okonkwo has disclosed that if the opposition must wrestle power from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All-Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027, they must be ready to form a coalition.
This is even as he disclosed that whoever the coalition puts forward as its presidential candidate, he might work for the person.
“Coalition, that is the best alternative that the opposition people would have to embrace. That way, you will be coming into a democracy if the whole opposition should come together as one.
If that happens, and I decided that I have seen that this collectivity has the interest of Nigerians at heart, whoever they bring out. if I’m in the mood why not” he said while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
READ ALSO: Kenneth Okonkwo Officially Resigns From Labour Party
Okonkwo who recently resigned his membership from the Labour Party insisted that President Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar should step aside from vying for the presidential seat in the next election.
When asked if he still wants the trio to give way for other candidates in the next general election, he responded;
“I said it and I maintain it because in Nigeria, people will not give you their mandate and you treat it with levity.
“You must do everything decisively to secure it. Unfortunately, nature has bestowed on us the duty that in Nigeria, you will not only win an election, but you have to fight for your mandate,” Okonkwo said.
Speaking on the internal wrangling rocking the LP, he maintained that the party cannot produce a presidential candidate from the south in 2027 if Julius Abure remains the national chairman.
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He added that the LP’s internal crisis and leadership struggles have rendered it ineffective in achieving good governance and national transformation while noting that anarchy has come to stay in the party.
“Anarchy is not looming in the Labour Party, it has arrived. As I said, Anarchy is the absence of authority or non-recognition of authority. Now in the Labour Party, there is no authority that is governing the Labour Party,” he said.
“I don’t think I have read any court decision that said Abure is the authentic national chairman. What happened is that all the courts they went to because they knew that there was no convention, so they always avoided the issue of convention.
The Nollywood actor, who had earlier said he was open to pitching his political tent elsewhere, noted that he is escaping from the party’s sinking ship.
“I am not jumping any ship. I am simply escaping from a sinking ship. I am jumping into safety, but let us put it this way,” he said.
