The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to a potential alliance between New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) leader Rabiu Kwankwaso and Labour Party’s Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

According to APC, the alliance is bound to fail.

APC’s National Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim said this an interview with Punch on Monday.

Ibrahim claimed that the alliance poses no threat to the party’s dominance and is likely to fail, similar to their previous attempt before the 2023 election.

He pointed to a lack of trust between Obi and Kwankwaso as a major obstacle, emphasizing that neither of them would be willing to step down in their bid for the presidency.

Ibrahim’s remarks followed reports that Kwankwaso recently expressed openness to being Obi’s running mate in 2027, albeit with certain undisclosed conditions. This has sparked discussions about a possible merger between the NNPP and Labour Party.

Labour Party’s National Secretary, Umar Farouk, welcomed the idea, stating that a collaboration between the two political figures could succeed if Kwankwaso were willing to put aside his ego and work with Obi.

However, the APC remains confident that any such alliance would not pose a serious challenge to President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.

Ibrahim said, “The underlying and most important factor in that permutation is the word trust, which will be the bane of their agreement. These are experiments that have been conducted several times, and the results cannot be expected to change unless the factor responsible for that result changes. If you don’t change the factor and you carry out the same experiment under the same condition, expecting a different result, you are only deceiving yourself. This is a scientific procedure.

However, the National Deputy Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party , Abdullahi Ibrahim, described the proposed Obi-Kwankwaso alliance as a welcome development.

Ibrahim told Punch that the PDP would support any talks on an alliance or merger that would liberate Nigerians from the current hardship and the grip of the APC-led government.

He said, “It is a welcome development. We were the ones who started the discussion at the instance of the PDP, when the major opposition figures met to review the state of the nation. If there is anything we expect from the opposition going forward, it is for them to close ranks and ensure they chart a common cause, whether it is the Peter Obi-led Labour Party, Kwankwaso’s NNPP, or the PDP that is prepared to lead the direction.