***Obi-Kwankwaso’s ticket has best chance of winning in 2027 — Ex-SGF
***Ex-SGF not worth dignifying with response — APC
***Obi-Kwankwaso ticket, APC’s greatest nightmare, says KwankwasiyyaBy Dapo Akinrefon, Omeiza Ajayi, Juliet Umeh & Hadiza Yusuf
Ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday dismissed claims by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, that a joint presidential ticket featuring Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso would have a stronger chance of winning the 2027 presidential election than if both politicians contested separately.
Lawal had made the remarks in an interview with Symfoni TV, where he, weekend, assessed the prospects of leading political figures ahead of the next general election.
Ex-SGF not worth dignifying with response — APCBut dismissing the claim, APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Felix Morka, said his (Lawal’s) remarks did not merit a response.“He said nothing that’s worth responding to,” Morka told Vanguard last night.However, the former SGF said: “Peter Obi will try to be fair to everybody. Obi will try to do that which is right.‘’Peter Obi, Kwankwaso, take note, I’m pairing them. I’m pairing them. Individually will be disaster, but I’m pairing them. So I’ll give them, on my scale, close to like 70 per cent. Again, Bola, 50. Atiku, zero.’’He also predicted that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar would not emerge victorious if he contested the 2027 presidential election.
“Atiku will lose. He will, and I pray he loses. I’m not the only one, and he will lose,” he said.
Tinubu financed 2015 campaign, played key role in APC formationSpeaking further, Babachir Lawal claimed said President Tinubu played a central role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC, funded key aspects of Muhammadu Buhari’s successful 2015 presidential campaign and even shelved his own presidential ambition to ensure the opposition defeated Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.He said Tinubu’s current administration had fallen short of expectations, describing it as “a failure” and accusing those in government of prioritising personal interests over the nation’s welfare.According to the former SGF, Buhari entrusted him with facilitating talks between the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, because of his close relationship with the current president.“I was in Dubai when you called me that I should come out because we want to do a merger with the ACN. And I told you, sir, this role you want me to play, I cannot play it…‘’So Buhari said, ‘you are the only one that can help us do this merger because Bola is your friend,’” Lawal recalled.He said Tinubu agreed to suspend his presidential ambition in order to unite the opposition and remove the PDP from power.“BD, you know my ambition to be president. But the way the country is going, the primary goal is to get rid of PDP. I will defer my ambition, put it aside until we achieve this goal,” Lawal quoted Tinubu as saying.He also credited Tinubu with securing crucial South-West support for Buhari at the APC presidential primary after reviewing delegates’ voting strength.“I said, sir, look at it. I have this data… This man (Buhari), whether he is on the ballot or not, normally gets 12 million votes from the north. So it required three more million votes… Sir, why not support your winning ticket?” Lawal recalled telling Tinubu.He continued: “He (Tinubu) saw the logic and persuaded them with the argument. And coming from Tinubu, of course… So at the last minute, around 4 a.m., they agreed that they were going to support Buhari.”The former SGF further alleged that Tinubu financed major aspects of the APC’s 2015 presidential campaign from his personal resources, including funding campaign activities for then vice-presidential candidate, Yemi Osinbajo.“Through him (Tinubu), we were able to raise sufficient funds to do the campaign. Not only did he do that, Osinbajo’s portion of the campaign; he funded it, hired a chartered plane… Tinubu was funding it.“Osinbajo on his own was a pastor. His ethnic nationalities and Christians had some doubts about Buhari. He was on that side.“He wasn’t in our own area, and he was just operating semi-independently of the main campaign. Tinubu was funding it,” Lawal said.He also claimed Tinubu hired American political consultants linked to former US President, Barack Obama, to strengthen the APC’s campaign strategy, alleging that more than N2 billion was spent on the consultants.“I don’t know their names. I just know that they were Obama people, and they came and transformed our campaign, and I knew that the money he paid them was in excess of N2 billion, equivalent in dollars,” he said.Lawal said Tinubu routinely paid for major campaign expenses himself, instead of relying on the campaign’s central purse.He added: “If there’s a need for an expenditure, no matter how massive, he doesn’t come to the campaign purse; he spends from his own purse.”Despite praising Tinubu’s generosity before he became president, Lawal said the current administration had failed Nigerians.“The people running the government don’t seem to be people who love the country. They are people who love themselves. Everybody is bitter that life is tough.“Suddenly, I don’t know what has happened; he has lost his soul… Having come to this government, he has lost his soul,” the former SGF said.
Obi-Kwankwaso ticket, APC’s greatest nightmare, says KwankwasiyyaIn a related development, the Kwankwasiyya Movement has said the Obi-Kwankwaso presidential ticket on platform of NDC remained APC’s biggest political concern ahead of the 2027 general elections.The group was reacting to claims by the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, that the Peter Obi-Rabiu Kwankwaso’s presidential ticket was dead on arrival.Spokesman of the movement, Habeeb Saleh, who stated this in an interview with Vanguard weekend, said Ganduje’s repeated attacks on Obi and Kwankwaso showed that the APC was worried about the growing popularity of the ticket.“The Obi-Kwankwaso’s ticket is the APC’s greatest nightmare. The more they attack it, the more they remind Nigerians that it is the alliance they fear the most,” he said.According to him, if Kwankwaso was politically irrelevant, the ruling party will not be spending so much time talking about him.“It is unfortunate when people make statements that are purely political. If there is anyone who has benefited from Kwankwaso’s political legacy, it is Ganduje himself. He rode on Kwankwaso’s achievements to become governor and complete two terms in office,” Saleh said.He argued that Kwankwaso’s political influence could not be dismissed, recalling that the former Kano governor secured more than one million votes in the 2023 presidential election on what he described as a relatively unknown political platform.“For someone who contested on a party with little national structure and still received over one million votes, no serious politician should dismiss him. Now he is working with Peter Obi, who also attracted millions of votes. You cannot ignore that kind of political strength,” he added.Saleh accused the APC of focusing more on attacking opposition figures than defending the performance of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.“Instead of telling Nigerians what this government has achieved, they spend their time trying to blackmail and discredit these two leaders. They should be talking about their record in office, not constantly attacking Obi and Kwankwaso,” he said.According to him, every attempt to undermine the NDC ticket only increases public interest in the alliance.“The more they try to minimise this ticket, the stronger it becomes. Their attacks continue to remind Nigerians that this is the ticket giving the APC sleepless nights,” he said.Saleh also criticised the Tinubu administration, alleging that it had failed to address key national challenges.“Nigerians will judge this government based on its performance. They will remember whether it was able to protect lives, provide electricity, improve the economy and deliver good governance,” he said.While further expressing disappointment over Ganduje’s comments, Saleh said: “It is unfortunate that Ganduje has reduced himself to this level. Rather than dismissing a political movement that has continued to attract support, he should show humility and allow Nigerians decide who they want to lead them in 2027.’’
Obasanjo not working for Tinubu— OsuntokunMeanwhile, Akin Osuntokun, former political adviser to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the presidential ticket pairing Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso as far more realistic and compelling than the Labour Party’s 2023 arrangement.Speaking in an interview on Arise News yesterday, Osuntokun said the alliance, which he claimed Obasanjo helped broker, would stand a stronger chance in the 2027 presidential election because of Kwankwaso’s political influence, particularly in Kano State.“Obi and Kwankwaso is a much more realistic, more compelling ticket than the 2023 one,” Osuntokun said.He added that Kwankwaso’s political base would be “a big bonus” for the ticket.Osuntokun dismissed suggestions that Obasanjo’s recent letter replying former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, was intended to benefit President Bola Tinubu politically.He maintained that his former principal remained critical of Tinubu’s administration and was instead backing the proposed Obi-Kwankwaso alliance.“Look, Obasanjo is critical of Tinubu. If you can say that Obasanjo is supporting any ticket, it is Peter Obi and Kwankwaso. As a matter of fact, he is the main sponsor of that ticket,” he said.According to Osuntokun, Obasanjo personally brought both politicians together.“He was the one who brokered the ticket between Obi and Kwankwaso. Both of them are quite close to him.“That, of course, is a ticket that makes sense and has the potential to make a lot of impact in the 2027 election. I can tell you that for free, that he was the one who brought the ticket together,’’ he said.Osuntokun further claimed that Obasanjo had attempted to broker a similar arrangement ahead of the 2023 election but noted that it did not materialise.He recalled the former president telling Kwankwaso, “if you had agreed the other time, both of you would have spent one term, and Kwankwaso would have been the beneficiary of that.”The remarks came amid renewed debate over Obasanjo’s recent response to Osoba’s allegations regarding the 2003 general elections.Recall that the former Ogun State governor had published an article titled, ‘’How Obasanjo Deceived Us in 2003,’’ alleging that the ex-president misled Alliance for Democracy leaders and Afenifere before the 2003 elections, contributing to the loss of AD governorships in the South-West.
Osuntokun argued that claims linking Obasanjo to Tinubu’s political interests were inconsistent with his support for the proposed Obi-Kwankwaso ticket.“How do you reconcile Obasanjo being the major sponsor of the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket with the theory that he is working for Tinubu because Tinubu visited him?” he queried.He also rejected claims that Obasanjo manipulated the outcome of the 2003 South-West governorship elections to unseat Alliance for Democracy governors.“I can definitely tell you that there no such thing happened,” he said, adding that the defeats suffered by the AD governors could be explained by political realities in each state rather than electoral manipulationDespite backing the proposed alliance, he acknowledged that Tinubu would enjoy the advantages of incumbency, ahead of the 2027 presidential election.“It has always become a norm that an incumbent in power has the advantage to be elected. So that is there,” he said.He, however, maintained that an Obi-led ticket would enjoy stronger public appeal than one led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.“But the Obi ticket, for me, is stronger in the popular imagination than the Atiku ticket,” Osuntokun said.
Tinubu lacks capacity to lead Nigeria—Peter ObiAlso yesterday, presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr Peter Obi, lampooned the Bola Tinubu government for not living up to the expectations of Nigeria, saying the President lacked capacity to lead and should be asked to retire in peace.He also reiterated his stand on serving a four-year tenure in office, and that he had an unwritten agreement with his party and running mate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.While outlining his plans for Nigeria, Obi said he intended to unite and secure the country when elected as President in 2027, just as he vowed to invest in mass education and eradicate poverty in the country.The former Anambra State governor cleared the air on the speculations about his plans to spend only four years in office.Last week, the vice-presidential candidate of the NDC, Senator Kwankwaso, expressed confidence that Obi would honour his pledge to serve only one term if elected in the 2027 presidential election.Kwankwaso, while responding to questions about Obi’s commitment to a single four-year tenure and whether he would seek the presidency after the proposed arrangement, had said: “I personally believe Peter Obi is a gentleman and I have every reason to trust him, especially that he said it to the hearing of everybody. Nobody should have any reason to doubt him,” Kwankwaso said.However, speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics yesterday, Obi said he had agreed to serve for four years.He said: “I have said this several times that I will serve for only four years. We have what we call an unwritten agreement; we are gentlemen and we must respect that. I do not need more than four years to show Nigerians the path we need to take.”On whether he has signed an agreement, he said: “I preached it; if you want me to sign it with you, I will sign it with you, and it does not bother me.“A day more than four years in office, it is not Peter Obi. I want us to start trusting our leaders. When I was going to be governor, I knew what I was going to do and when I came in, I told the people what I was going to do.‘’I told them that I would manage their money, schools, and health care would work. Everything I said, I did. That is the way to work. Our people have lost trust in their leaders.‘’That is why I said the character of a leader must be consistent in doing the right thing. Even though you do not achieve 100% success, people must see 100% effort.I have repeated that I would serve for four years and not a day more.”Asked whether his decision to serve for four years was a policy or a decision to unseat Bola Tinubu in 2027, he said: “You can change Nigeria in six months. We are headed in the wrong direction now; that is why I am calling for his (Tinubu’s) resignation right now.‘’He (Tinubu) should step aside because he lacks capacity to do the job. The Bola Tinubu that was governor is not the President that we have. He is tired. He should be allowed to retire in peace, go home and rest.”On Donald Trump’s letter to Tinubu that he had dealt with insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria, the former Anambra State governor said: “Thank you to Donald Trump, thank you to Tinubu, but we need to do more, far more than what we are doing.‘’I have heard people and Donald Trump now is confirming it, that he has done his best. The crisis we are facing shows that his best is not enough. We need to do more.‘’Recently, 40 people were kidnapped in Zamfara State; 60 others were abducted in Sokoto State. It shows we are in a crisis situation that requires added capacity.“I would be far more committed in dealing with the issue (insecurity) and I would be at the forefront; I will be the driver.‘’I will not disclose my strategy or plans in the open, but I will be far more committed in ensuring that our security architecture is equipped, staffed and supported. We will do it with much more commitment to secure the country.”Expressing worry that Nigeria’s biggest security concern was poverty, Obi said: “You cannot create mass poverty and not expect insecurity. You need to deal with poverty. The more people you pull out of poverty, the more you reduce criminality. I will tackle poverty. You need to invest in mass education.“Kwankwaso and I believe in education; we will be hands-on, and everybody will see it and feel it because we will be in charge. Whatever it takes to secure any Nigerian, I will do that. If you do not want to do it, you retire.”Asked why he does not enjoy support of political heavyweights from the South East, he said: “It depends on the ones you are talking about. For someone who won the entire zone, with an average of 80%, I think I am getting all the support. All over Nigeria, I don’t think those who are living on the confusion would want to support me.“If you are bringing change, you have enemies who are living off the old order. Some people are living off this old order, some people are benefiting from it, but I am going to bring a change that will benefit the larger population.“The South East is backing me and that is why I have 80% of the votes. Every Nigerian is important.”On whether he could beat Tinubu in Lagos State and Atiku Abubakar in Adamawa State, he said: “36 governors would support the President, so it won’t be only 31 governors. I want to give all the governors to him (Tinubu) but the people in the state are not with him because the people are hungry.”