Nigeria’s main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has rejected former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call for a political Third Force Movement. The elder statesman, who was Nigeria’s commander in chief as president from 1999 to 2007, made the call in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, in which he advised the current president against seeking re-election in 2019.
Obasanjo gave the advice because he believes the current government has been incompetent and nepotistic in its pattern of key federal appointments. He also suggested that there is no difference between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP, urging Nigerians to immediately join forces to bring about a Coalition for the country.
And the PDP, which saluted the former President for his criticism of the Buhari administration, says there is no need for a political Third Force Movement. In a statement issued by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said such would amount to repeating the same blunder that paved the way for the emergence of APC as the ruling party.
"Repeating the old mistake of congregating political strangers cannot help our nation at this time, more so, when the few concerns raised by the former President about the PDP no longer obtain under the refocused and rebranded PDP” he said on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, the party tweeted that "No need for a third force. The PDP is already a coalition of all Nigerians and our experience in governance is quantifiable.”
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