Ajibola Basiru, spokesperson of the senate, says the newly formed political group — Rescue Nigeria Project (RNP) — is an “assemblage of failed politicians”.
Basiru said this on Wednesday, during an interview on Channels Television.
On Tuesday, the group, which said its focus is on “creating new standards for leadership in the country”, held its inaugural national caucus meeting in Abuja.
The meeting had Usman Bugaje, a former member of the house of representatives; Pat Utomi, a professor of political economy; Tunde Adeniran, a former chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Abdulfatah Ahmed, former governor of Kwara, in attendance.
Asked to speak on the launch of the group in the light of the 2023 elections, Basiru, senator representing Osun central, said the next general election will be between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that efforts of any “third force” movement will fail.
“Every time an election is coming, you see a group of people, who don’t even know what the rudiments of politics are about, coming around to mesmerise the public and entertain us, if I may use that word, with all sense of responsibility,” he said.
“You see in this country, setting up a political party has become a business and for some people that just set up political parties to be able to have the opportunity of possibly speaking on national television like Channels TV.
“As far as I’m concerned in Nigeria today, if electoral contest is anything to go about, you can only mention political parties like APC, PDP, APGA — maybe in a particular state — and some splinter parties that come up by an individual like a senator that won on the platform of YPP.
“The truth is that the 2023 election is going to be about a choice between the APC, my political party and the party of our president, President Muhammadu Buhari, and the PDP. The other people that you said ‘third force’, there was a time some people named their own political party Mega Political Party.
“By the end of the day, the Mega Political Party never had a councilor, not to talk of an LG chairman. I want to say with all sense of responsibility that it is wrong.
“To say that some people who had one way or the other been active participants in one political party or the other, but have failed woefully, coming around to say they are the ones that want to give third force to the country is a laughable idea.
“I look at the dramatis personae that they were at the so-called Rescue Nigeria Project today. Tell me any of them that has not had any stint in one governance or the other and what has been the record in that regard. An assemblage of failed politicians, either elected or appointed, can’t say that want third force movement for the country.”
