Public affairs analyst and former Consultant on Media and Strategy to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Ken Okolugbo, has admitted that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will become a threat to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) if the former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, secure the coalition presidential ticket.
News360 Info reports that Okolugbo made this known during an interview with Daily Post, stating that having Peter Obi on the ballot to contest against President Bola Tinubu will be interesting.
Okolugbo, however, expressed doubt about Peter Obi getting the ticket, noting that, with the current happenings in the party, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, already has the ADC ticket.
Asked if ADC will be a threat to the APC in 2027, Okolugbo said, “ADC will be a challenge if Peter Obi becomes the presidential candidate. I will be deceiving anybody if I say it will not be a challenge with Peter Obi on the ballot. But the way Atiku is going, it’s like he has the ticket already. But if ADC is serious that they want to give us a run for our money…but I don’t see them as serious people. I see them more just as people that hate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Somebody said if El-Rufai was made a minister, he wouldn’t have left APC. So, I see them as a gathering of people who just detest Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“But in all honesty, if Obi gets the ticket and Atiku subsumes his ambition, it will be interesting. And opposition is good, any government democracy that says it no longer wants opposition, that’s a wasted democracy. I will have to be performing to be able to send the message across…that’s democracy.”
Okolugbo further dismissed the accusation that the APC is trying to force everybody, including governors, into its fold.
He added, “That’s not correct. Recall that what happened to my former party, the PDP, was its failure to give the ticket to someone from the South, just like in my state Delta, the way former governor Okowa handled the primaries. You don’t allow people to buy forms and at the end of the day, you impose people on them. That’s what Wike does differently; he buys one form each, he never allows anyone to go and waste money. Let’s disagree at the level before we buy form, not allowing people to incur expenses and then there won’t be credible primary. If you allow internal democracy in the APC, it’s all a smooth sail. So the PDP was on a self-destruct mission because of the way they handled their activities.
“So, most of the governors that are coming in, it is because of what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done. I see a man who is sincere, who has seen money. He is not a hungry man. He has seen money, what money will impress him again? Is it a car you are going to buy for him? Those are the things I am saying; it is obvious the man is not interested in stealing and that has helped us a lot in his government. It is those things that have attracted people to APC, nobody is being coerced.
“Look at security, there is improvement now, even the United States is now bringing us some materials, which they did not do before. That should tell you that Tinubu knows how to surmount challenges.”
