Restructuring advocate, Reverend Chris Okotie, has given reasons why smaller parties cannot win the presidential election in Nigeria.

In an interview with the BBC Pidgin, monitored in Lagos last weekend, the Reverend told the BBC anchor, Helen Oyibo, that unless Nigeria was restructured to make its political participation all-inclusive, fringe parties would not be able to win the all-important Presidential election, even if they had the best candidate.

He was reacting to a question on the chances of the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who is viewed as the third force behind the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Okotie said the fact that only the bigger parties had ruled the country since the return to democracy in 1999 showed clearly how powerful they were.

“Only the PDP and the APC have the national spread and network required to win the Presidency. No small party has such capacity.

“Until the political system is restructured to shift the emphasis away from parties to the people, the dominant parties would continue to hold sway,” Okotie said.

On why he set up FRESH after running for president on the Justice Party, and the NDP, Okotie said it was a deliberate effort to promote his agenda for a paradigm shift.

He said he knew he would never be able to defeat the two dominant parties in a presidential election.

He explained why he did not join either the APC or the PDP: “If I join any of these parties, I would become part of the problem. Most of the big men go to these parties because all they want is power for personal aggrandizement.”

Asked if he ever considered the option of relocating abroad because of the complex problems facing the nation, Okotie said he would not leave Nigeria.

“I don’t want anyone to take from me the land that God gave to me,” he said.

He said he would continue to promote restructuring and its interim government component, ruling out the option of giving up.

“I am already successful in my area of calling. I don’t need to run away. A time will come when people will depend on what I have said in this restructuring campaign,” Okotie explained.

He also expressed grief on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, saying his prayers were with the British people and others around the world at this moment.

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State says the emergence of Atiku Abubakar and Iyorchia Ayu as presidential candidate and national chairman respectively shows a lack of will by both men to restructure the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Nigeria.

Debunking the news that he had accepted to be chairman of the PDP governors’ forum, Mr Makinde, at a road commissioning outing in Abia State, faulted the process of both men’s emergence as incapable of delivering an equitable and structurally inclusive party.

“‪We are not fighting to have the chairmanship of the PDP’s governors’ forum. We are saying that if PDP has promised to restructure Nigeria, and we cannot restructure PDP then we are not restructuring Nigeria. That is the fact‬,” Mr Makinde said.

He emphasised that inclusivity has long been a major challenge for Nigeria’s political stakeholders, dating back to pre-independence conferences, and tasked the party to adopt alternative means, away from the present system, that ensures everyone’s involvement.

“There have been issues that are foundational. If you read the proceedings of the constitutional conferences that led to Nigeria’s independence, you know that there were issues then. And if since 1960, we have not been able to get things right, yes of course they may cite the military interruptions ‪because of their unitary command structure.

“But we’ve been practising democracy since 1999 and if we are not able to create a path that can lead to sustainable development, we should try something else,” Mr Makinde added.

The governor, who is also seeking reelection under the PDP, has pitched his tent with outgoing Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the party’s internal crisis thickens; with political analysts fearing that his decision might cost him his second term ambition.

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, says the All Progressives Congress, will triumph in the South-East in the 2023 general election because it is the only party with structures in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.

Uzodimma, also the Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in the South-East, said this at a seminar organised by the party for its candidates in Owerri.

“APC is already winning and will win in the South-East because APC is the only political party that has party structure at the polling units and booths in all 774 LGAs of the country,” he said.

Uzodimma said that the seminar was aimed at planning for successful electioneering campaigns for the 2023 poll.

“The participants must carry others along as they cannot lead or win elections in isolation,” he said.

He said that the South-East has every cause to appreciate what President Muhammadu Buhari has done for the zone in his almost eight years as the President of Nigeria.

He listed the president’s achievements in the South-East including the second Niger Bridge and the rehabilitation of the Federal Highways in the zone.

Others were the establishment of a Naval Base in Oguta LGA of Imo State as well as the ongoing reconstruction of the 200-bed hospital at Imo University State Teaching Hospital Orlu by NNPC, among others.

He cautioned members of the party against deceit by groups who often claim to support the South-East Presidency after they failed to support aspirants from the zone at the presidential primaries of the APC.

“The Igbo people have been a victim of mistaken identity. There is the need for the South-East to take their destiny in their own hands because if you don’t say I am, nobody will say you are,” he said.

The seminar was attended by executives and members of the APC across the South-East as well as present and former political office holders of the party.

The Accord Party presidential candidate, Prof. Christopher Imumolen, on Friday, said the 2023 elections will produce many surprises.

He added that the outcomes of the election will surprise many Nigerians, with claims that the frontline candidates may fail to win the presidential election as being assumed by many.

In a statement on Friday by his campaign organisation, Imumolen while sharing plans on how to win next year’s election said a candidate with a detailed strategy like him will win the presidential election and not noise.

He said he believed more in quietly winning converts to imbibe his dream of generational change in running Nigeria’s affairs than dissipating energy canvassing for votes on social media platforms.

According to him, my well-articulated strategy that will focus on mobilising Nigerians to buy into transformation and the change agenda is the game changer.

“Let me say this, next year’s elections are going to produce a few surprises because it is those who come into the race with a well-articulated strategy that would carry the day. I am a strategist and I have been all my life.

“I have been planning this for 15 years through affecting the lives of people. I have been building my structure from the grassroots, by the use of empowerment programmes and mass mobilisation.

“If it was due to the level of noise one could make on social media, I would probably not have won the Accord party primaries.

“I know of candidates who made so much noise in the media but failed to get nominated for the positions they sought because they failed the acid test of putting sound strategies in place.

“As a matter of fact, I beat candidates who were more vociferous, more vocal than I was during our own primaries.

“And I tell you. While they were busy making their noise, I was more concerned with how I’d get people to vote for me. Yes, my concern is to see how Nigerians will turn out in their numbers to vote for me and my party on election day.

“To do that, I must convince them that I am the man that has the answers to their problems as far as running Nigeria is concerned.

“As I speak, we are planning on how to get voters, agents to vote as well as represent us in all the 176,000 polling booths across the country on election day.

“Publicity is good. But not at the expense of real strategy to win the required votes to become the president of a country like Nigeria,” he added.