Peter Ameh is a former chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and the National Secretary, Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the opposition coalition on the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC) and why Peter Obi is the best choice for the party, among other issues, EVINCE UHUREBOR writes

You’re involved with the inter party advisory council and the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). Did anybody in the coalition consult your organisations before the before the choice of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was publicised and what do you think about the prospects of the party?

First and foremost, for the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), there is a new chairman, I am former chairman but for the coalition, I actually attended several meetings was part of several deliberations. For the opportunities that lies for the coalition, there is a plan to remove the current administration that is underperforming seriously.

I think there are a lot of chances and those chances should be predicated on certain factors and drawn within certain parameters, because you cannot in this day and time, when election and political dynamics have changed from where people need to snatch ballot boxes and run away with them.

You need candidates that have momentum; candidates that have public appeal; that you know have organic depth of support; that should be on the ballot, so that you have the opportunity to remove the current government.

What defeated President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015; that won’t have still even happened without the implosion in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). So, the only way to defeat this current government is to have a candidate that would have the capacity to do so.

For me, I think that candidate should be Peter Obi. We can’t have people who are not showing compassion, who are not showing that they understand the terrain of this country. The problem we have is that we have put people, who don’t know the route that links Ogun and Enugu in government. If you look at the last election; there was no political entrenchment, there was no political structure.

People said there are three people sitting in one room, there are no governors, there are no senators, but that Obi has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the people have interest in him because it is about the message and acceptance.

You can be popular and then you go for election and there is no result. If You look at the 2023 presidential election, despite the fact that APC was in control of the structure in the entire South and the PDP in control of Delta, where its vicepresidential candidate came from, Obi still won.

You have the southern election statistics where Obi of Labour Party (LP) had 44.5 per cent, Atiku Abubakar of PDP had 19.4 per cent, Bola Tinubu of APC had 35.5 per cent and Rabiou Kwankwaso of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had 0.48 per cent. And when you come to the North, he had a substantial share.

It is embarrassing that we are still talking about North and South, rather than competence, merit and ability to perform

You have to take away the rigging because some people are saying he didn’t win the election, while others are claiming he won the election. We need to go to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and see that there are a lot of irregularities, a lot of forged results that were posted there.

And if we look at BBC’s report, it exposed what happened in Rivers State. You will find out that Obi defeated every other candidate in River State. These are data that are verifiable.

We can’t just come and try to put up candidates who are not going out there to sell themselves, candidates who cannot go around to connect with Nigerians and to show compassion to people who are going through crisis.

It is obvious that you’re supporting a rematch. If that rematch of 2023 is to be replayed in 2027, what are the strategic errors that you feel need to be rectified for this rematch to have a different outcome because many people continue to analyze and say that if Obi and Atiku had come together, the outcome would have been obvious.

But it looks like Atiku and Obi interested in the ticket, and whoever gets it will have an incumbent to contend with. What are the permutations that need to change for this rematch to have a different result?

They were both together in 2019 and if you look at the build-up to 2023 election, there were new voters. If you look at the registration done by INEC, there were a lot of new voters that came onboard. These voters came onboard because they saw a reason to be able to participate in the election and there were a lot of hopes that the election will be hosted on IREF.

Look, votes are cast at the polling units. Accreditation done at the polling unit in Nigeria is one of the best electoral frameworks but the fact is that human interference is actually hindering us from having proper data that will be reliable. But if you want to say it’s a rematch, Tinubu will be at a disadvantage. Look at Lagos election; the PDP has the complete data of that result in Lagos that reflect the fact that Obi score far above 500,000 votes.

So, the coming election is for us to get it right. I have actually put out before that you can look at sections of the Constitution, section 105 sub section 1, section 64 sub section 1, and you can look at other sections, section 178 sub section 2, and you can look at those sections and then make sure that we have our election all conducted in one day.

If we have all this election conduct ed in one day, it will reduce voter apathy, it will reduce the fatigue on INEC. It will reduce the cost of conducting election and that will also help us go for this rematch to be successful. You need somebody that can actually match Tinubu in the South.

You don’t come and create southern solidarity like how you created northern solidarity in the build up to 2015 elections because there is no way one region can decide the fate of our presidency. And Obi has tried to reach all parts of this country, working to show the interest that education is very key and very important if a nation must grow and develop.

So, we have a situation where we need to have people who believe in the system, people who know the system and have traveled across length and breadth of this country by road to know what people are feeling.

And I see Obi doing that on weekly basis, except it’s not in this country. I will not hide behind one finger to say it must be South. So, I have narrowed it from South to Obi.

What about the argument that Obi cannot make inroads in the core North?

In fact, I must agree with you that it is embarrassing that we are still talking about North and South, rather than competence merit and ability to perform, but the thing is that there are data that they are putting out that is not really representing the true interest of the North.

I know what Obi scored in Kaduna in the last election. It’s 294,000 votes and LP won two House of Representatives in Kaduna. And I know what he scored in Plateau. So, the North is not what the analysis is showing.

The fact that Obi could even take 15.2 per cent votes in the North without the kind of structure that was put in place and without proper preparation six months to the election is something interesting. The North is not as monolithic as some people have come to define it.

Let’s focus more on the substantive issues. You know that the North-South divide is a given reality in the coming elections. Understandably, now you see President Tinubu trying to hold on to the South. What’s your prediction?

Do you think that the coalition, one way or the other, will be able to shake the incumbent president? I’ve come here to, you know, to discuss issues as someone who have attended the coalition meeting, and I know the calibre of people there. A lot of our friends are there, former governors and all that, who are really interested in trying to make sure that there’s a change of guard in 2027.

And I talked about election dynamics, which has changed. If you look at Lagos, it was entrenched in the hands of Tinubu since 1999, nobody has been able to defeat him in the state. But in the last election, he was defeated by Labor Party led by Obi.

And you look at the South-East, where Obi got close to 90 per cent of the votes cast there. It is not about a political structure that people that is dependent on governors. So, the only way the coalition will not defeat Tinubu is if they get a candidate that has no organic support.

What is your recommendation? Who and what are you recommending to the coalition, since you say you have attended some of their meetings?

For every time you have election, there are new ways of resolving issues. You could have direct primaries, indirect primaries or consensus, but I believe that there should be a pre-elitist consensus for people to come together and agree whether they are going South, so that we will not waste time in this struggle between ourselves and then deplete our resources and energy, while the people in government have enough to be able to run around.

Who is that person from the South that you will prefer?

I said it that Obi is the person I prefer because I have known Obi for a very long time, and I know he has been very consistent with his principle. And if I do say: Who am I going to choose as somebody that will be able to bring this country back to a financial discipline and bring fiscal discipline on board, I believe Obi has the capacity, the compassion and the merit to deliver on that result.