There are pathways to defeat APC outside merger – Showunmi

A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Segun Showunmi, has criticised recent calls for opposition parties to merge in order to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 elections. Speaking on Arise TV, Showunmi described the idea of a merger as “a very lazy approach,” emphasising that it is misguided […]

A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Segun Showunmi, has criticised recent calls for opposition parties to merge in order to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 elections.

Speaking on Arise TV, Showunmi described the idea of a merger as “a very lazy approach,” emphasising that it is misguided to think that unseating the ruling president requires only a merger, especially when the incumbent secured just about 8 million votes out of the 80 million votes available in 2023.

Showunmi, a former governorship aspirant in Ogun State, stated: “It’s very lazy and extremely annoying that a political party like PDP is not working very hard in the field to try to make itself electable. And to do that, they need to stop the quarrel, one. Number two, they need to do a differentiation of why people should vote for them.

“You can’t be speaking from the same side as the ruling party. You are not as efficient as them, and you want people to dump them for you. You can’t be saying, ‘Oh, I want to be president,’ and your only pathway for president is not to get into the field and start working, but to sit there and be talking as some people are going to come and join you.

• Teachers collapse as FCT council chairs fail to implement minimum wage
• Aviation industry must be insulated from politics — Capt Musa Nuhu

“There is a pathway for them to win without all this nonsense talk of merger.”

Showunmi questioned the feasibility of such a merger, asking: “When you bring all six of you together, which of you have agreed to be the president? Then all of you will then bolt out of the arrangement, claiming that you didn’t get what you want. You who cannot even endure in a legacy party like PDP, are you the ones that will endure if you go to another party and you don’t get what you want?”

He added that opposition parties must present realistic, actionable and verifiable ideas rather than relying on alliances.

“You are not going to come and defeat any incumbent just by thinking that you can say you are harvesting misery. The bottom line is that you must be bringing to the table realistic, actionable, verifiable, at least hopeful ideas,” he said.

Showunmi also warned against allowing divisive figures to infiltrate opposition parties, especially pointing out the potential danger of alliances with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

He said, “I hear them talking about SDP. With due respect, Shehu Gabam, my brother, don’t allow them to come to your party and start dictating this and that… The attitude that they used to destroy their party, never allow them to bring it to your party.”

Showunmi proposed that opposition figures should take responsibility for their own future: “They have a right to look for platforms to contest their election. But they must call it that. They can’t be giving the impression that those of us that have been loyal, staying with the PDP since it was formed, are fools because we are saying, don’t destroy the house because you can’t have your way,” he said.

He also urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to evaluate his future involvement in politics.