The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has mocked Professor Pat Utomi’s call for the merger of three major opposition political parties amid the 2027 off-cycle election.

 

Utomi, a political economist, reportedly confirmed that three presidential candidates in the last election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, have agreed to form a formidable party that will sack the APC in 2027.

 

However, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the APC dismissed Utomi’s statement as an undeniable delusion of grandeur.

 

“As a serial promoter of mega parties that never materialized, Prof. Pat Utomi’s statement cannot be taken that seriously.

 

“In 2021, Prof Utomi and his collaborators disturbed the airwaves with plans to launch a people-centred ideological mega party under the auspices of the National Consultative Front (NCFront) to dislodge APC and PDP. That plan did not go past the news headlines.

 

“Now in 2024, Prof. Utomi is touting a possible collaboration among LP, NNPP and PDP, vastly political parties, according to him, that are bereft of any ideological orientation or did not manage to create an alignment with the Nigerian People to improve the quality of their lives.

 

“One can only infer that Prof. Utomi may be positing that his personal involvement in the proposed alliance will transform the same parties, he has adjudged to be decadent and anti-people, into bastions of political and economic liberty for Nigerians.

 

“This is an unmitigated delusion of grandeur.”