Utomi: Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso Have Agreed to Float New Party

•Says Nigeria’ll rise again in 2027 via merger

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Renowned Political Economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has reiterated that former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi and former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, had agreed to float a political party.

He stressed further that the proposed merger of opposition parties to wrest power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027 was not for ‘machine politics’ but for genuine service to the people.

Utomi, the Convener of the National Consultative Front (NCFront) and the BIG TENT disclosed this in a statement, explaining that  the proposed merger party would not be a hurried coupling together of interests.

He has reacted to the comments by the Deputy National Organising Secretary of the APC, Nze Chidi Duru, on the planned merger of some political parties.

Utomi expressed his optimism that the three presidential candidates in the 2023 general election, had agreed to form a formidable party that would sack the APC in 2027, adding  that Nigerians needed people who would make sacrifices for the development of the nation.

“I read with interest the response by Nze Chidi Duru to speculations about what has been called a merger of opposition parties. That response itself is much evidence of progress.

“To clarify, what I have been speaking to is not the hurried coupling together of interests to create a platform for machine politics like the Daley machine in Chicago to obtain desired elections outcomes and foist state capture on a wearied people.

“What I have been speaking to is the founding of a real political party. This is something that has eluded this fourth Republic,” Utomi explained with clarity.

According to him, their efforts began with the idea that would birth a world view of this party, which some called ideology.

He explained that the new merger  political party would develop shared values around the approach to a people’s centered political party,

stressing  that the new party would develop a structure for community-based solutions to the personal troubles of people and flow of what the people want into the policy process.