Kenneth Okonkwo: Nigeria needs new leaders — Obi, Tinubu, Atiku should step aside

Kenneth Okonkwo, a former presidential campaign spokesperson of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, says Nigeria needs new political leaders in 2027.

Okonkwo spoke on Tuesday in an interview on Arise Television.

He said the ruling and opposition parties have failed Nigerians, adding that President Bola Tinubu, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the LP in the 2023 elections, must step aside to allow fresh ideas in 2027.

He said leaders of the opposition parties have not been able to inspire their members to demand judicial and electoral reforms in the country.

Okonkwo said opposition parties will only be wasting their time to contest the 2027 election because of what he described as “desecration” of the judiciary and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He added that opposition parties should not be thinking about forming a merger one year after the election.

“We need new faces. I completely agree that we need new faces, 100 percent and that is why I have said that Atiku, Peter Obi, and Tinubu should step aside,” Okonkwo said.

“The reason is because the ruling party has failed, the opposition has failed. Are you aware that we have more opposition members as representatives than the ruling party?

“The opposition leadership has not been able to show leadership to inspire their members to make sure that this perfection that is happening to our electoral and judicial processes is corrected.

“I am not saying merger is not important; I am saying that you don’t just finish an election, and the next thing you start talking about is the next election.

“You consolidate and form an alliance to work together as an opposition.”

He added that the members of the opposition parties in the national assembly have refused to cut down the excesses of the ruling party.