The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said that the alliance between his party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) would have been undefeatable in the 2023 general elections if not for their inability to agree on certain points.
Speaking at a forum with the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and senior journalists in Lagos on Sunday, Kwankwaso said if the two political parties had completed their alliance, there would have been no need for a second ballot in 2023.
According to Kwankwaso, the major issue for discussion was who will be the presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate, hence, the two parties raised negotiation committees and the committees looked at the ages, educational qualifications, offices held and experiences of the candidates, however, the alliance negotiation could not come to fruition as Obi’s committee insisted on power shift to the South-East.
Kwankwaso said his committee led by Buba Galadima could not accept the other team’s condition because Nigeria has gone beyond having a president based on ethnic and regional considerations.
“I thought the alliance would be good. If we had done that nobody would be talking about a second ballot in 2023. At our discussions, the issue was who will be the presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate. Both parties raised negotiation committees. Our team was led by Buba Galadima.
“The committees looked at age, educational qualification, office held and experience. At the end the other committee did not want to go with this, they talked about power shifting to the South and to the South-East. Nigeria has gone beyond that, nobody can be president of Nigeria now based on ethnic and regional considerations,” Kwankwaso said
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