Indications emerged on Sunday evening that Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) are in talks for a possible merger in other to wrestle power from the All Progressives Congress in 2027.
ENigeria Newspaper understands that the possible merger between the Labour Party, PDP, and NNPP was a discussion ongoing for some time and hinged on two possibilities.
Sources hinted that the first possibility hovers around the outcome of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT). “Should the tribunal declare a rerun, Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Peter Obi of LP and Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP are considering a merger in other to form a formidable front during the rerun”, a source revealed.
The source further said that should the PEPT decide otherwise, then the trio of Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso along with other key political figures are considering flaunting a merger in preparation for the 2027 general elections.
Meanwhile, the Peter Obi-led LP and Kwankwaso-led NNP failed to reach conclusion on a possible merger ahead of the 2023 Presidential elections. This is as talks between the two political parties crumbled months preceding the election.
Consequently, in a recent development, Prof Lai Olurode, a former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to consider a merger with other political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Olurode said the PDP would only be able to dislodge the ruling APC from power if it could merge with other parties, saying the main opposition party threw away a big opportunity to return to power when it went into the 2023 general elections in a weaker and fractured state.
Speaking as a guest on Bottom Line, a programme of New Cruse 92.7 FM, Ikere monitored by THISDAY yesterday, Olurode said opposition parties in the country led by the PDP would have achieved the feat of sacking the APC from power if they had swallowed their pride and work together to give Nigerians a party regime change they had craved.
The Professor of Sociology noted that APC was able to unseat the PDP from power in 2015 because the legacy parties that coalesced into the merger buried their differences and sacrificed individual ambitions to achieve the unprecedented feat.
Thisday Newspaper shed more light on the subject in an exclusive report reproduced below:
Gearing up for possibilities as the country continues its transition process, the trio of Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and Peter Obi have begun to discuss the possibility of a merger, with the ultimate goal of setting up a formidable party that can more effectively challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), THISDAY has learnt.
The meeting of these three political leaders, which had been going on for a while, it was gathered, started with the one between Atiku, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Kwankwaso, who was the presidential candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) at the last presidential election.
After the first leg of the meetings was adjudged successful, another one between Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) and face of the OBIdient Movement, and other critical elements in PDP started to take shape, after the other two stakeholders agreed to bring him in.
The discussions, which were said to still be at the preliminary stages, had been hinged on two pillars.
The first, according to insiders, the three leaders have decided to wait and watch the outcome of the election petitions in court, which would determine the second leg of the decision, should the court verdict go south.
For instance, sources privy to some of the discussions hinted that the leaders were hopeful that the presidential election tribunal would be “just and fair” enough to establish that the election that brought President Bola Tinubu to office could not stand any decent electoral test and, as such, do the needful.
By this, the leaders were said to be hopeful that the tribunal would call for a re-election or rerun, which would see them come together in a merger for the election and challenge Tinubu and APC in the second opportunity.
However, if the tribunal decided otherwise, the leaders were said to be considering setting up a formidable party ahead of the 2027 general election, during which they planned to take over the reins of power from the ruling APC.
A source said, “The meeting started with Kwankwaso and Atiku and they have agreed to bring Peter Obi in to set up a formidable opposition after the court cases. Although they have not got to the point of discussing who will lead the opposition, they are leaving it out for now till after the court cases.
“After the court cases, they will plan and come together for a re-election or stand together ahead to fight the 2027 election battle. They are considering a formidable party comprising the PDP, Labour and NNPP.”
