The lead anchor of Inside Sources and former presidential spokesperson, Laolu Akande, has identified the competing presidential ambitions of the new coalition’s key figures as its “greatest challenge.” According to Akande, the alliance’s success hinges on its ability to manage the personal ambitions of leaders like Rotimi Amaechi, Peter Obi, and Atiku Abubakar, a task made more difficult by the absence of a clear, pre-arranged power-sharing deal like the one that defined the 2015 APC merger.
During the interview on Channels Television, he pinpointed the central issue that will determine the coalition’s future. “That’s the challenge, that’s the greatest challenge of this opposition. Are they going to be able to remain together? That’s the big question, because we know that Amaechi wants to be president, Peter wants to be president, and Atiku wants to be president. So those are the three main forces”.
He then drew a sharp contrast with the formation of the APC, which had a clear understanding of its leadership structure from the beginning. “When the APC was forming, everybody knew clearly that this is something between the people of Buhari in the north and the people of Tinubu in the southwest”.
Akande explained that the 2015 merger was successful because of Bola Tinubu’s willingness to defer to Muhammadu Buhari, which solidified their alliance. “And Tinubu was very clear that, ‘Look, this thing will go first to the north for Buhari.’ So that helped the coalition of the party”.
He concluded by stating that the new coalition has not yet demonstrated this level of strategic unity or sacrifice. “Now they don’t have that. Until we can see that they commit themselves in a serious way to say that, ‘Look, we’re going to have a fair process and whoever emerges is going to be supported,’ we don’t have that now. There are still quite a bit of stuff going on”.
