Breaking: APC, Keyamo React as Opposition Parties Move To Sack Tinubu in 2027
- APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda dismissed the G100-convened opposition summit as driven by personal interest, not national concern
- The summit brought together six opposition parties in Abuja on August 31, though Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Seyi Makinde were absent
- G100 convener Salihu Lukman argued that split opposition votes in 2023 handed victory to a candidate who polled fewer total ballots
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The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed a major opposition summit as a sign of panic rather than political strength, saying the gathering only confirmed what the party already believed, that the opposition faces a crushing loss in the 2027 general election.
APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Strategic Communications, Abimbola Tooki, described the summit as "dead on arrival."
Source: Twitter
He questioned why parties that had done nothing to unite in four years were suddenly scrambling together four months before campaigns heat up, Vanguard reported.
"All of them are out to protect their personal interests. The question is: What have they been looking at in the last four years? It is four months to the election and they have suddenly woken from their slumber. Is that how it works?" Yilwatda said.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, was equally blunt.
He said he had earlier described the coalition's effort as "a journey to nowhere" and that the summit's outcome had only proved him right.
"The whole thing is symptomatic of their acceptance of a crushing defeat in 2027. The best thing for them to do is to honourably withdraw and support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu," Keyamo said.
Opposition summit in Abuja
The summit that drew the APC's fire took place on Monday, August 31, in Abuja, where six opposition parties converged under the platform of the political pressure group, G100.
The parties present were the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Three prominent figures were, however, conspicuously absent: ADC's Atiku Abubakar, NDC's Peter Obi, and Oyo State Governor and APM presidential candidate Seyi Makinde. Those who attended included SDP's Prince Adewole Adebayo, PRP's Donald Duke, and APM's vice-presidential candidate Lawal Musa Daura.
G100 convener Mallam Salihu Lukman used his opening remarks to push for a government of National Competence built around a single four-year transition term, backed by what he called an enforceable transition charter, Punch reported.
"We want to underline the word 'enforceable.' This gathering does not need more sincerity. Nigerian politics has never suffered from a shortage of sincere promises. What it has suffered from is promises that nobody could enforce when the person who made them changed his/her mind," Lukman said.
Source: Twitter
Lukman grounded his argument for unity in the arithmetic of the 2023 presidential election, pointing out that the winning candidate took just under nine million votes while two opposition candidates together polled roughly 13 million between them.
"The side with fewer votes formed the government, lawfully, constitutionally and entirely predictably. Nobody stole 13 million votes. We divided them ourselves, in public, and we did it knowing exactly what the consequence would be," he said.
The Abuja gathering followed a separate opposition meeting held earlier this year in Ibadan, Oyo State, which was not organised by the G100.
Rivers ADC warns Wike
Previously, Legit.ng reported that the Rivers State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) hit back at FCT Minister Nyesom Wike over his remarks at a civic reception in Omagwa on Saturday, September 5, where he boasted that the ADC's vice presidential candidate, Rotimi Amaechi, would be eliminated from contention by noon on election day.
ADC state chairman Dr Chukwudi Dimkpa, speaking in Port Harcourt on Monday, September 7, dismissed the claims as empty.
Source: Legit.ng
