Chief Chekwas Okorie, the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has stated that only a coalition government can emerge following the 2023 elections.
In an interview, the APGA Presidential candidate stated that the party was open to forming a post-election alliance with any political party, and that “the next government will be a coalition government.”
The way Nigeria’s political consciousness has been aroused along the three factors I mentioned earlier will make it difficult for one party to win a landslide.
The President may win the election and be proclaimed President. The National Assembly, on the other hand, will be balanced, and the President will require a coalition of parties to form a stable government.”
He also revealed that the upcoming 2023 elections will be a referendum between the old and new ways of doing things in the country, insisting that the poll will give the country the option of maintaining the status quo or choosing the change that will allow them to reclaim their citizenship in Nigeria.
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This comes as he praised Labour Party candidate Peter Obi for arousing Nigerians’ political consciousness, noting that many people, particularly “Igbos who form 70% of voters anywhere in the country have not been interested in the system because of the way they were treated.”
While urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cleanse itself internally in order to conduct credible elections, he also urged stakeholders to work together to rid the commission of officials involved in’malfeasance’ that could jeopardise the outcome of the exercise.
He revealed APGA’s measures to end social unrest, adding that the party will include a memorandum of understanding on issues concerning prisoners of conscience such as the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnadi Kanu, and Sunday Igboho, leader of the Yoruba nation separatist movement, in any post-election alliance.
According to the APGA’s flag bearers, both men are social crusaders, and locking them up will encourage more people to support their cause.
“Right from the beginning of this problem with Nnamdi Kanu, my position has been that it is a political matter that should be resolved politically,” Okorie explained. I had advised Nigerians and the government to use political means to resolve this. It is not a matter for the court to decide. It is not a crime. He’s a stirrer.
“You could also refer to him as a freedom fighter.” More people who believe in his ideology will spring up if freedom fighters are imprisoned. The fact that he is locked up hasn’t calmed him down.”
“In any post-election alliance we form, we will include in the memorandum of understanding a political solution to the issues of prisoners of conscience such as Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Igboho, and others.” It is part of my own manifesto, which will be released when the time comes, because it is obvious that this government, which has less than a year left in office, will continue the legal proceedings, he stressed.
Okorie said of the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, “it will be uncharitable to say that the government has failed.”
Buhari, he said, “became President during a turbulent period in the global economy.” The first thing that struck him was a very low oil price, which was not present before he arrived. As he was debating this, the issue of Covid-19 arose. And now, that Covid has had an impact on the entire global economy. Today, no country, no matter how developed, is not experiencing spiral inflation. We are not unlike the others.
As a result, he has performed poorly in terms of the economy. But I admire some of his accomplishments. Some people object to the loans he obtained. To begin with, it will take a person with certain credibility, which means that he has the ability to repay, even the smallest of loans as an individual.
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“Nigeria received soft loans, and I am satisfied that these loans were not used for consumption, salary payments, or allowances.” They were used for ventures and projects involving regenerative capital.”
He cited the seaports on the eastern coast as some of the Buhari administration’s accomplishments, adding that more seaports are being built and those that the military deliberately abandoned since the 1970s to make the Eastern part of the country impossible to trade with have been regenerated.
“Buhari has given each area a comparative advantage,” Chief Okorie says. Nobody else has done it since the war ended, even as he bemoaned the federal government’s refusal to listen to the call for state and community policing, despite repeated requests from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“Some of his appointments have been lopsided, creating divisions among the people of us versus them.” These are negative zones. Even during the oil boom, infrastructure has received the greatest boost since the end of the war.
Consider the railway issue, even though some are still under construction. But they’re being built with loans that will push them to a logical conclusion,” the Presidential candidate insisted.
