OBJ, NUP, others to launch another grand coalition against Buhari

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, facts have emerged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and some of his colleagues in the “Retired Generals” elite class are about to float the ultimate coalition tagged “People First Grand Coalition” aimed at mobilizing all segments of Nigeria for a better government and to allegedly unseat President Muhammadu Buhari if he decides to contest the presidential election.

The National Chairman of the National Unity Party (NUP), Perry Opara, who also said that his party is at the center of the coalition, and is driving the process, told BusinessDay in an exclusive chat that the coalition is perhaps the most comprehensive gathering of all segments of the Nigerian society, who are fed up with the deteriorating economic conditions and the increasing insecurity, hardship and unemployment in the country under the President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Grand Coalition according to Opara is already working out plans to produce a credible presidential candidate with the patriotism, vision, intellect, intelligence, knowledge and cosmopolitan outlook to direct the destiny of the nation.

He also confirmed that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and former Governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, are prominent politicians who could be considered by the coalition when it finalises arrangements to select a presidential candidate, which it will sponsor on any party of consensus in the 2019 election.

Opara, who is also the National Secretary of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) confirmed that the Peoples First Grand Coalition will be the culmination of the strategies mapped out by the collaborative efforts of other movements such as the Coalition of Nigeria Movement (CNM) recently launched by Obasanjo, the Nigerian Intervention Movement (NIM) led by human rights lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, among others.

Although he did not name other members of the coalition, he stressed that they are made up of political parties, faith-based organisations; including prominent religious leaders of the Muslim and the Christian faiths, market women, trade unions, professional associations, students unions, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, the media, community leaders, traditional institutions and even international organisations.

He added that Obasanjo is a catalyst and any endeavor he embarks upon stands to succeed because he has the clout, the influence and the pedigree to move Nigerians to desired goals.

Obasanjo had in January written a letter to President Buhari, where he accused the President of failing to steer the nation’s economy in the right direction even as he lamented that President Buhari has displayed an unprecedented level of nepotism and incompetence especially on the issues of insecurity and advised him not to seek reelection in 2019. Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) was then launched on March 31 by his associates led by Olagunsoye Oyinlola in Abuja to “rebuild Nigeria and restore hope for a terribly divided country.”

Not long after, another military President, Ibrahim Babangida, wrote another strong letter to Buhari in February raising a string of Buhari’s failures and also suggesting that the younger generation should be given the opportunity to take charge of the affairs of the nation in 2019.

The NUP chairman noted that the coalition has the agenda to restore faith, unity, brotherliness and solidarity of the Nigerian people, which is fast fading to a dangerous dimension in the last three years following what he described as the “failures” of the Buhari government in handling the economic challenges confronting the country and the frightening level of insecurity occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency and the incessant herdsmen killings across the country, including Buhari’s alleged nepotism.

It would be recalled that Buhari came under intense criticisms for appointing northerners and mostly Muslims in virtually all the top security positions in the country, which analysts described as clannishness, which they also claimed violates the nation’s Federal Character provisions and thoroughly divided the country.

 

Innocent Odoh, Abuja