By Bilesanmi Abayomi
Some residents of Kosofe have urged the opposition parties to merge to kick out the All Progressives Congress-led ruling party in 2023.
This appeal was made when some residents responded to The Kosofe Post’s inquiries on what the opposition parties such as the PDP, NNPP, SDP, LP, and others can do in the Kosofe Federal Constituency to have good outcomes in Kosofe ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Since its return to the Democratic Party system in 1999, the Alliance for Democracy, Action Congress, and Action Congress of Nigeria, which later metamorphosed into the All Progressives Congress, have never allowed the opposition parties to breathe Kosofe.
While many strongly believe that the opposition was suffocated through the election processes that gave room for electoral malpractices and multiple thumbprinting, they elongated the reign of the APC. They added that if free, fair, credible, and transparent elections were conducted with BVAS, the party’s 2-decade reign would have been truncated.
Reacting, Political Analysse Onasile Adeleke Olawale, said, “The best option is to form a merger to defeat the incumbent. Anyway, it is not easy for the incumbent to have an easy ride now because NO MORE MULTIPLE THUMBPRINTING. If the other political parties can come together, winning is sacred.”
In his words, Rotimi Ademola from Anthony Village noted that “the best time opposition parties should have taken over Kosofe was sometimes around 2015, and the second-best time will be 2023. Therefore, my appeal to the opposition parties is to burry their egos and pride, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and present a visible and popular candidate among themselves to challenge the ruling party.”
An entrepreneur, Azeez Nurudeen Lekan from Ojota, said mergers aren’t legal at this time. He adds, “Let’s have the results of past elections from various positions and do the mathematics. There may be informal merging and collaboration between the parties.”
Dele Aroyewun from Ikosi Ketu, in his own opinion, said nothing more than a house-to-house, door-to-door campaign.
According to Awofeso Rasheed Ololade from Oworonshoki, “Regardless of the constituency involved, the beauty of democracy is having opposition around so that the seating party, popular party, or government can do their best in terms of delivering the dividends of democracy. It should be noted that democracy is about human and infrastructural development; anything outside these is rascality. The purpose of opposition is to make the ruling party responsible and responsive to its subjects. The more opposition, the better for our political developments. Your policies and style of governance can make parties acceptable.”
Salami Oluwaseun, Oworonshoki, urged opposition parties to make their manifestos available for public scrutiny and an appeal to the conscience of the great people of Kosofe.
The social critics said, “The opposition party in Kosofe should make their manifestos and mission documents available for public scrutiny. The electorate is more conscious and wise than ever before.
The last time I checked, INEC had not approved polling units on social media platforms, and as such, they should wake up from their slumber by engaging the real electorates in a one-on-one campaign to appeal to the conscience of the great people of Kosofe.
“As of today, only one NNPP candidate in Kosofe is physically visible and making frantic inroads in the political space, while others are currently on their beds sleeping, waiting for a miracle to happen at the polls,” he said.