National Chairman of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Alhaji Yabagi Sani, says that his party is not part of the coalition arrangement by some opposition political figures to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027
Sani, who is the immediate past national chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
“ADP is not part of the coalition move to unseat Tinubu in the 2027 general elections, because we do not believe that the arrangement will produce any good result,’’ he said.
According to him, democracy is not built on personal interests, adding that those championing the coalition are not placing people at the centre of their struggle, but personal interest.
“Democracy is not built on personal interests; it has to be around some axiomatic beliefs that equitably satisfies the interests and aspirations of many.
“It is very obvious that those behind the coalition are pursuing personal interests.
“For instance, if Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna, was made a minister, he probably wouldn’t have been among them.
“When you also look through the identities of other people talking about this coalition, you will agree with me that none of them would have raised a voice if they had a place in Tinubu’s government.
“If you even ask them what they have as alternatives to Tinubu’s policies and programmes, you will be shocked to discover that they don’t have any plan,’’ he said.
According to Sani, who contested the presidential position in 2019 and 2023, coalition or no coalition, it will be difficult to unseat Tinubu in 2027.
“What are you going to tell voters from the southern extraction of the country to vote against Tinubu when they know that they have four years left and then they will vote for another northerner after Buhari’s eight years?
“How would you equally think that the northerners will allow another southerner (aside Tinubu) to come in, with the expectation of doing eight years, plus four years of Tinubu, making it 12 years before power will return to the north? he queried.
“Look at what happened to former president Goodluck Jonathan; because the sentiment didn’t favour him, that was why he lost in 2015,” he said.
Sani expressed the regret that even though rotational presidential arrangement between the north and the south has not impacted positively on the growth of democracy, it still remained the reality of the political situation in the country.
“Unfortunately, the reality of our political arrangement is that a southerner is a southerner and a northerner is a northerner, and until that mindset is changed, we will continue to move in a circle,’’ he said.
On the fears being expressed in certain quarters that Nigeria might be heading to one-party state due to the gale of defections by some politicians and political office holders, Sani said that he totally aligned himself with the fears.
Even though the president appointed people from various sections of the country as security chiefs, unlike the previous government headed by Muhammadu Buhari, he should extend the same gesture to the appointments of people in other sectors.
