With talks about coalition brewing ahead of the 2027 election, former Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign spokesman Kenneth Okonkwo says he will support a fresh southerner or northerner who is willing to vacate office after a four-year single tenure.
He hinged his decision on equity and fairness to both northern and southern regions of the country, in line with the unwritten rule of rotational presidency.
“Everybody should come together. It is something that can be discussed. Who is going to do four years is going to influence who I am going to support because I still believe in equity and justice,” Okonkwo said on the Sunday in an interview with newsmen.
The lawyer, who dumped the Labour Party in February 2025, said he is open to joining the coalescing coalition to trounce President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next poll.
Talks about a coalition have been gaining momentum of late and were heightened by the defection of former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai from the APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
El-Rufai has been pictured with the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, amongst other powerbrokers in the opposition. Like El-Rufai, Okonkwo recently met with Atiku, saying Nigeria needs cooperation to defeat the ruling APC in the next poll.
Okonkwo described the APC government as incompetent, saying the opposition must put up a formidable front to wrest power from the incumbent in the next election.
He said, “My game plan is simple. If the opposition is serious about wresting power from this incompetent government, they must all come together and act like one because that was what APC did in 2013 and that was what helped them to wrest power in 2015.
“I believe in coalition. When I was leaving, I said I am open to discussions with every group to consolidate the opposition so that we can take out this government.”
The lawyer described the 2027 election as complicated and complex but said the coalition could discuss the modalities for victory in the poll.
Okonkwo said, “2027 is one of the most complicated and complex times in the political history of Nigeria because we have this gentleman’s agreement – eight years in the South, eight years in the North.
“Now, when an incumbent is not doing well, and in the middle of his tenure, it is a very difficult thing to change or to project what will happen.
“Would you say you want to get a fresh person from the South? The North will say that means he will do another eight years. They will be scared, and politicians are not very good at being trusted.
“Would you allow an incompetent government to continue just because you want to sacrifice the whole of Nigeria? Just because you want to leave an incumbent government to finish eight years?
“Would you say let it go to the North when it has just been four years in the South? The South would say you are short-changing us. So, it is a very complicated thing.
“The best thing if politicians were to be trusted is to have a free, fair primary where every qualified person, whether South or North, would partake in it. And whoever would emerge would agree to do four years, whether from the South or the North.
“If he [northerner) does four years, it would have been shared between North and South – four years each, and then it returns to the South.
“Then if a Southern person, a fresh person wins, he will do only four years to complete the eight years. Then, it will go to the north, where it will spend eight years.
“So, if the north agrees that the person there now is not doing well but it is not yet our turn but we can do four years – if the person emerges from the free and fair elections because if you begin to regiment it and say he won’t do primary, then it will be a selective thing, not democratic.”
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