Only coalition of parties can defeat Buhari in 2019 – Okupe

Doyin Okupe

A former presidential spokesperson, Doyin Okupe, has called for a coalition of political parties to combat the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2019 presidential election.

Mr. Okupe warned that the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would not defeat President Muhammadu Buhari if it decided to go it all alone.

Mr. Okupe, who is the national leader of the Accord Party, AP, was a member of the PDP until he dumped the party last year.

He spoke in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday at the election of the state executive of the Accord Party in Ekiti State, and the adoption of Banjo Ojo as the party’s candidate for the 2018 governorship election in the state.

“It took a coalition in 1998 to be able to send away the military. The coalition crystallised into PDP, won election and held it for 16 years,” Mr. Okupe said.

“It took coalition of forces again in 2015 to be able to wrest power from the PDP and that is what Nigerians should do in 2019.”

According to Mr. Okupe, the defection of former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, from the APC is a big blow to the party and sign that the party may eventually crash in 2019.

He however described the AP as a veritable third force that is blowing like a whirlwind across southwest Nigeria and the country at large, boasting that the party would win the 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State.

Mr. Okupe said the PDP and the APC had disappointed Nigerians and turning to AP was the only way out.
“If you check properly, former Vice President Atiku has just left the APC now and this is a big blow,” he said.
“The PDP is virtually leaving an intensive care unit to the mortuary. APC is bleeding profusely.

“The two parties are in crisis, so no single party can defeat the President except a strong coalition.”

He said Accord Party will go beyond Governor Ayodele Fayose’s stomach infrastructure if voted into office in 2018.

“Stomach infrastructure alone cannot transform Ekiti,” he said. “What the Accord Party will do is total infrastructure in the areas of industrialization, health, education, youth employment and rural development.”

Mr. Ojo, the governorship candidate of the party, said Accord Party would participate in the December 23 local government election to test its strength in Ekiti.

“The Accord Party is less than three months and we are already making waves,” he said.

“What we intend to do is to sponsor youths and women for the council elections , so that they can turn around to develop their own towns.

“We are really concerned about how to boost the economy by setting up industries like rice mill in Igbemo Ekiti and flour mill in Ilawe, which produces the largest banana in Nigeria.

“We are also encouraging women through empowerment programme and this we are starting by fielding a woman as my deputy governorship candidate in 2018 to demonstrate our love for them.”