Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
Ten out of the 45 political parties may have signed up for the Gen. Mohammadu Buhari Presidency under the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 2007 at the weekend as they signed a merger plan under a common platform to dislodge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the next general elections.
Ten out of the 45 political parties may have signed up for the Gen. Mohammadu Buhari Presidency under the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 2007 at the weekend as they signed a merger plan under a common platform to dislodge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the next general elections.
Though the parties agreed under the arrangement to form a Coalition for New Nigeria (CNN), which will now fuse into a party to prosecute the presidential election jointly, Daily Sun learnt that the parties will eventually fuse into ANPP, which was represented at the meeting held at Yaounde Street at Utako area of Abuja on Friday.
The 10 parties, most of which belong to the Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa faction of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), include National Conscience Party (NCP), African Renaissance Party (NRP), Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), as well as Nigeria Advanced Party (NAP). Others are Progressive Action Congress (PAC), Nigerian Peoples Congress (NPC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peoples Solidarity Party (PSP) and All Niger Peoples Party (ANPP).
Indications that the arrangement was to aid Buhari's presidency was confirmed by the presence of Alhaji Buba Galadima, a known ally of Gen Buhari who represented the ANPP at the meeting.
The NCC, it was learnt, was adopted now so as to down play the ANPP issue and present the party as just one of those aspiring to merge to see if other political parties would join the fray.
It would be recalled that the ANPP had, while exploring opportunities for merger, bluntly refused to go into any merger that will alter its name and logo. This, sources revealed, has been the only obstacle towards the ratification of the merger.
Addressing pressmen after the coalition's meeting in Abuja, National Chairman of NCP, Osaigie Obayuwana, said that unlike the Action Congress (AC), CNN is a coalition of registered political parties which had agreed to work together for the enthronement of genuine democracy in Nigeria.
He said the principal objective of CNN is to engage in total mobilization of the Nigerian people for the task ahead. 'Our approach is to do the work of mobilization on house to house basis, explaining to Nigerians, the programmes we intend to put in place if we come to power, programmes that will have direct, positive impact on their lives as opposed to the current practice of unleashing anti-people's programmes that create more sufferings and pains for them," Obayuwana said.
He explained that nearly eight years after the return of democracy in the country, Nigerians were yet to enjoy democracy dividends because the wrong people had been in government since 1999.
The politician added that the CNN consisted mainly of the political actors who were in the vanguard of the fight for the actualization of the June 12 1993 presidential election, which was annulled by military president Ibrahim Babangida. He said the coalition also harboured those who fought against the third term agenda of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Explaining how candidates of the coalition will be selected, Obayuwana said: 'What we are working on right now is the structures that would make it possible for the selection of the coalition's candidates to be done in an objective manner, using criteria that everybody can agree are honest.
He said that each party in the coalition was still entitled to bring forward its presidential candidate. 'But on the platform of the coalition, we will assess all of them, openly, transparently, objectively. We will look at their strengths and weakness, look at their records, antecedents, the extent to which they embody the vision of this coalition," he said.