The former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau has called on members of the opposition parties to form a merger with the major opposition party, People's Democratic Party, PDP to wrestle power from the ruling party, All Progressive Congress, APC in 2027 general election.
This was as he said he doesn't believe in the coalition led by the African Democratic Congress, ADC which he described as "individual coalition".
Shekarau made this known during an interactive session with the media at his Mundubawa residence to reflect on his life and political journey at 70 years.
He however, invited members of the ADC-led coalition and other oppositions to join the PDP which he said remains the only surviving political party since 1999.
According to him, "I did not believe in individual coalition, but I believed in party coalition. That's what I insisted. This is what we did in 2012/2013 when ANPP, ACN, CPC and part of APGA came to form what today we call APC. But when individuals as either candidates or vice presidential candidates or vice presidential aspirants come together, infact I don't call it coalition, it is A leaving party X to party Y. That's not coalition. Each of them liked his own party. And all of them, none of them came to the coalition with his own party. And without sounding a little bit immodesty, what has become the ADC today? All of them aspire to be elsewhere.
"But we are inviting them all to come back to the biggest of the leading political parties. Whatever you say about the PDP, it is the only party among all the parties registered in 1998 that is still surviving. It is still surviving. And it will continue to survive by the grace of God. Whichever the problem, whichever the difficulties. So we are inviting all the other parties to form coalition, be it ADC, Labour, SDP and several other of the parties. And I promise you, this is my personal vision, this is my personal effort. Whether I will see it in my own time or not, that's immaterial. But my concern is let the coalition get together to fight for energy," Shekarau said.
The two term former governor and former Minister of Education, scored the President Bola Tinubu led administration low in the areas of security and economy.
"Two fronts, I know they are still yet to go above average. The issue of taking care of the insecurity challenges. The situation where people are being murdered, slaughtered like animals, is unacceptable. There is no nation without criminality. There is no nation without criminals. But we are not saying government should eliminate in total criminality in the society. This is not real. But what we are saying, bring the criminality to the barest minimum. Like these two of them, it can be done. And we are praying Allah will give the best people the opportunity to address this.
"The second thing is the economy. Whatever you do with the economy, whatever government does, so long as it does not create easy access to food, it's rubbish. Because food is the most important thing in people's lives. So if you are able to make easy access to food, with small money you can buy food and eat, then you have no problem with any problem in life. So these two things, I believe government has a responsibility of securing the live and property of the people and let people eat well. So I think this is my assessment of the government. I don't want to go into details. I am in opposition and I will continue to remain any wrongdoing in any government," he said.
The Septuagenarian said he is not quitting politics as he vowed to remain in active politics through out his lifetime.
"I will remain in the political arena for life. I am not going to check out. My reason is that, you see, for every citizen to participate and contribute to ensure democratic leadership, to ensure the integration of trusted and credible leaders. And since the only way we accomplish and get leaders is through the political process, then politics and the process of producing elected leaders have also become religious duty. And hence my argument that religiously I believe participating in the process of producing credible leadership is a must under the umbrella of the religion of Islam, because that is service to humanity.
"I will remain in the political arena to contribute to the best of my ability and the best of the opportunity given me, just for business, my mission, my life, anything," he said.
Shekarau however, said he has forgiven all those who offended him in the past and also seek for forgiveness of those he offended.
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