2023 Presidency: NNPP to merge with Peter Obi's Labour Party? Kwankwaso reveals final decision

Ahead of the 2023 general election, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has ruled out a merger with the Labour Party (LP).

The former governor of Kano state said those who are still talking about the possibility of the NNPP merging with Peter Obi's LP are unrealistic, The Guardian reported.

Kwankwaso, however, admitted that if both parties had agreed to fuse into one, the 2023 presidential election would have been easy for them to win. Legit.ng gathers that the NNPP presidential flagbearer stated this at an Editors’ Forum in Lagos on Sunday, November 20.

He said he was surprised some people were still discussing the possibility of the merger when the window for that opportunity had closed.

Why the merger deal failed, Kwankwaso gives hint

Kwankwaso hinted that the negotiation for the merger failed because those who led the LP insisted Peter Obi must be made the presidential candidate because the southeast had never produced the president.

“We have passed the level of any relationship. But it was a good idea. And if it had been possible, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not be talking of the possibility of second balloting today.

“The contentious issue was who will be the presidential candidate and the running mate. The committees from both parties sat to look at the criteria and they said, ‘let’s start from the age, educational qualification, offices held’, but the committee from LP did not want that.

“They said there is sentiment from the southeast that they never produced the president, therefore, Obi must be in the lead. Our side tried to explain to them that it does not work that way. There is sentiment everywhere, and nobody, by the Constitution we have today, can become president by winning election in his zone alone," Kwankwaso said.