10022018 - 2019 : How we'll stop Buhari - Opposition parties

10—SATURDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 10, , 2018
2019:
How we
will stop
•Buhari
Buhari, APC
—Opposition parties
•Vow to repeat 2015 scenario
•Buy into Third Force
•It’s a rescue mission —CNM
•APC responds gamely
•Obasanjo
•Agbakoba
By Clifford Ndujihe,
Deputy Political Editor,
Additional reports from Henry Umoru
and Dirisu Yakubu
WORRIED by what they
described as the total failure
of the All Progressives
Congress, APC-led Federal
Government to offer good
governance, a host of opposition political
parties have declared their readiness to stop
APC and President Muhammadu Buhari at
the 2019 elections.
To realise the objective, some of them have
started moves to consummate what they
describe as ‘’ a rainbow coalition’’ that will
field or back a joint candidate against the APC
in 2019.
Already, the Dr Olisa Agbakoba-led Nigeria
Intervention Movement, NIM, is working
towards giving the electorate ‘’a credible
alternative’’ or ‘’Third Force’’ to the APC and
main opposition Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, at the polls.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
recent open letter to President Buhari asking
him not to re-contest on account of poor
performance and subsequent formation of the
Coalition for Nigeria Movement, CNM, to
drive the process of retrieving power from
Buhari, has added impetus to the aspiration
of the opposition parties.
Last week, 22 political parties on the plank
of Committee of Concerned Political Parties,
CCPP, constituted six committees to hammer
out action plans for the 2019 general election.
Interim Chairman of CCPP, Dr Onwubuya
Breakforth, who is also the national chairman
of Freedom and Justice Party, FJP, told
newsmen in Abuja that the group was
concerned about boiling national issues,
including killings by herdsmen and
restructuring.
The sub-committees are on restructuring
Nigeria and inter-governmental affairs,
national security and integration, planning
and finance, contact and mobilisation, and
research and documentation.
Said Breakforth: “The CCPP also resolved
to jointly discuss and proffer solutions to key
national issues threatening the peace and unity
of our dear country. It was further resolved
that various options open to the
group in relation to the 2019
general elections would be
explored in the best interest of the
country.”
He listed some of the parties in
the CCPP as Freedom and Justice
Party, FJP; Sustainable National
Party, SNP;, New Nigeria Peoples
Party, NNPP; Social Democratic
Party, SDP; Allied Congress Party
of Nigeria, ACPN; Unity Party of
Nigeria, UPN; Grassroots
Development Party of Nigeria,
GDPN; and National People’s
Congress, NPC.
Some of the parties were peeved
by the recent comment of
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of
Kaduna State that there is no
alternative to President Buhari in
2019 and vowed to repeat the 2015
scenario in which an opposition
The CCPP
also resolved
to jointly
discuss and
proffer
solutions to
key national
issues
threatening
the peace
and unity of
our dear
country.
party beat an
incumbent
party. Will
t h e y
succeed?
•Atiku
P a s t
alliances
Nigeria’s political history is replete with
failed alliances and mergers. In the First
Republic, the United Progressive Grand
Alliance, UPGA, consisting mainly of the
National Council for Nigerian Citizens,
NCNC, and the Action Group, AG could not
stop the Northern People’s Congress,
NPC, because UPGA leaders could
not sink their ambitions and
differences.
In the Second Republic, the
Nigerian People’s Party, NPP, Unity
Party of Nigeria, UPN, People’s
Redemption Party, PRP, and the Great
Nigerian People’s Party, GNPP, formed
the People’s Progressive Alliance,
PPA, which also failed to click against
the National Party of Nigeria, NPN.
In 1999, the Alliance for
Democracy, AD, which had swept the
South-West in earlier polls aligned
with All Peoples Party, APP that
dominated elections in the North
with the intention of beating PDP at
the presidential polls. It gave the PDP
a good fight but failed to win the
election.
In 2007, about 15 parties came
together and formed the Action
•Lamido
Congress, AC, but the party made little or no
impact in the presidential election.
A move by the Action Congress of Nigeria,
ACN and Congress for Progressive Change,
CPC, to join forces in the 2011 polls did not
yield dividends.
However, alliances bore fruits at the 2015
general polls. The then ruling PDP was given
a good fight and beaten in the presidential
poll after leaders of the APC did their
homework. Before the presidential victory, the
first time an incumbent party was losing
election in Nigeria, leaders of the APC, an
amalgam of four opposition parties – Action
Congress of Nigeria, ACN; All Nigerian
Peoples Party, ANPP; CPC; and a faction of
the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA,
said they joined forces to rescue Nigeria from
the deadly grip of the PDP.
It’s a rescue
mission —CNM
Like leaders of the APC said in 2015,
members of the Obasanjo-propelled CNM
and the opposition parties said they want
to rescue Nigeria from President Buhari.
Continues on pg 11