Just a few days President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a damning letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, his proposed Coalition Movement has been launched in Abuja.
The movement was launched at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital today,
Even though Obasanjo was not present at the launch, two former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Donald Duke, were in attendance.
The former president in a lengthy and critical public statement on Tuesday, January 23 suggested the formation of the movement and advised Buhari against seeking a second term in office.
The former President, had said in his public letter that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were incapable of repositioning Nigeria. The political parties have lost the confidence of the electorate.
Oyinlola, a former governor of Osun State, said the movement is not yet a political party.
If and when we come to an agreement that we must metaphose into a political party, then we will, Oyinlola said.
“We’re not a political party, at least, for now,” he said.
He acknowledged that for the movement to make electoral impact in the manner described by Mr. Obasanjo in his letter, its proponents would need to follow the Constitution and register it as a political party.
“We recognise the facts that by the dictates of the Constitution, you can only contest on the platform of a political party,” said Mr. Oyinlola, who was the national secretary of the PDP before joining the APC in 2014 after his controversial removal from his position in the then-ruling party.
