A national leader of the Accord Party, Dr Doyin Okupe has declared that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot win the 2019 Presidential election.
Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, made the declaration on Sunrise Daily on Channels television on Thursday morning, while reacting to the Press Statement of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo advising President Muhammad Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.
He said the former President’s statement should be a serious concern for the ruling party because all issues raised in the statement are truth that cannot be faulted by anyone and it should also send a strong signal to APC and PDP that they cannot win the Presidency in 2019.
“Everything President Obasanjo said in the statement is correct and we cannot fault them. Things are not going right, we can’t argue about it, people are losing their jobs, people are hungry and dying, we can’t argue about it. So I am saying APC should not be afraid but they should be seriously worried that it is now clear to Nigerians that they have no good agenda for the country,” he said.
Okupe, who threw his weight behind the call for a new Coalition of Nigerians as suggested by Obasanjo in his statement, said “I fully support the call because as it is presently APC will not be able to produce a president on its own. PDP is also highly fragmented. So in order to bring a president that will be acceptable by the people you have to take people from PDP, people from APC and other parties and non partisan people who will come together and create the coalition and that’s how it works.
“That was how Buhari became the President. But unlike the APC merger that has failed to translate into meaningful development for the country, this new merger should be about people with ideology and political will to make the country better and I am sure it will spring up by March or April this year,” he added.