By Rotimi James
A seasoned political party administrator and former National Chairman of the Progressive People’s Alliance PPA, Chief Sam Nkire, has advised the opposition coalition against President Bola Tinubu to: “postpone the intended political fight to another day”.
In an interview with The New Outlook, Chief Nkire who began as the pioneer National Secretary of the PPA which once ruled in Imo and Abia States, said “with the groundswell of Governors, Senators, House of Representatives members and Local Government Chairmen leaving from almost all the opposition parties in Nigeria to the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, it would be almost impossible for President Tinubu to lose the next election”.
According to Chief Sam Nkire who is also an election planner and strategist himself, “what makes the political structure of the presidential candidate stronger is the number of political strongmen running for various offices in the same party with the flag bearer”.
Reacting to a recent major defection from the People’s Democratic Party PDP to the APC by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno along with most of the apparatus of State, the APC stalwart opined that even though the opposition had the right to gather, “it would be foolhardy for a company of a few political soldiers to contemplate taking on a division of soldiers, better trained and with superior fire power”.
He reiterated his appeal to the Nigerian public as well as members of the opposition political parties to allow the APC controlled government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its Renewed Hope Agenda to take root before a premature battle cry.
“When we took out the ruling PDP in 2015, the opposition APC was in full strength, fierce and united under an umbrella; but today the story is very different. Majority of opposition members don’t even know what platform or party name to run election with, let alone unite or fight under a banner”, Nkire said.
The elderstatesman further stated that: “every patriotic Nigerian wants a change for the better, but not a counterproductive attempt by those who most likely won’t be able to deliver the goods Nigerians seek at this critical point”.
He appealed to Nigerians to give Tinubu time to finish laying the foundational economic framework he has begun, with signs of success following, adding that: “Nigeria does not require any guesswork or show of disruptive enthusiasm at this late hour”.