The former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Adeniyi, on Thursday said that Nigeria needs cohesion of opposition parties to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
He said Nigerians were yet to know who to vote for against Buhari less than a year to the next election despite frequent calls on the electorate to secure Permanent Voters’ Cards.
Adeniyi stated this during the review of his book, ‘Against the run of play’, at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy.
He said, “I don’t expect anything different in the 2019 elections. I expect that the Independent National Electoral Commission will perform better than it did in 2015.
“The challenge for the opposition is that they have to get their acts together. I keep saying it, by the end of 2012 for instance, we already knew who was going to challenge Jonathan in 2015. You can’t say the same thing today. And you need a cohesive opposition to defeat an incumbent.
“Right now, if you are asked who would be the next candidate, you can tout many names but you are not sure.
“And for me, there are only two political parties right now; there may be others in future, but now it’s either the APC or the PDP. All these Red Card, Third Force and others are helping the incumbent.
“Yes, the call by the opposition parties on the people to get their PVCs can play a part, but what I think basically is that Buhari’s biggest challenger today is ‘go and get your PVC’. That is not a candidate. Yes, People will get their PVCs but who are they voting for?”
