Some members
of the Coalition of United Political Parties have expressed their opposition to
the adoption of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, as the consensus candidate of the CUPP
without undergoing screening with candidates of other parties in the alliance.
Also,
Owojela's Blog learnt on Saturday that the PDP and 38 other parties that
constitute the CUPP would meet on Tuesday.
The parties,
in separate interviews with the Media, noted that the alliance was still in
effect and that each presidential candidate should be given a chance to emerge
the standard-bearer of the coalition.
The National
Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, Pastor Fasogbon Akinboye, told one of
our correspondents that the CUPP arrangement was on course.
Akinboye
added that members of the coalition were not reneging on their efforts to work
together as a common front to deliver the dividends of democracy to the
populace.
When asked
if he was confident in the party’s ability to clinch the consensus presidential
ticket, he said, “Of course! There is no big party or small party. The
electorate is what we count much on. The electorate is bigger than all the
political parties because they (people) dictate the pace of everything and we
can assure you that if the CUPP just decides to use the Alliance for Democracy,
then, we are capable of giving them the best.
“We are
confident that any candidate we put forward at any point in time is capable,
intelligent and full of life; they can always be measured up with other
candidates anywhere, any day. Politics is about give and take. If eventually
all of us come round the table and say ‘Let us use Atiku’, fine. If they say,
‘Let us use the AD candidate’, all well and good. Politics should not be
winner- takes-all.”
Similarly,
the National Chairman of the National Conscience Party, Yunusa Tanko, described
the alliance as a battle of reclaiming and winning election.
The NCP
chairman said, “We said we would produce all our candidates and then, we would
strategically position ourselves as to how we could win elections
collectively.”
Tanko, who
is also the presidential candidate of the NCP, said, though the party did not
share ideologies with the PDP, it was determined to wrest power from the All
Progressives Congress like the ruling party did in 2015 after forming a merger.
He added,
“Don’t be surprised that I may be anointed as the coalition candidate. It is
not impossible.
We may not
have a common ideological leaning, but we may have common interests that join
us together just like when the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for
Progressive Change, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the All Nigeria
People’s Party and the new PDP forged a merger.”
The National
Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, Alhaji Sa’id Abdullahi, also
stated that the consensus arrangement was underway.
According to
Abdullahi, the modalities are still being worked out such that “very soon,
everything will be finalised.”
He said, “We
did our own primary and Obadiah Mailafia emerged as our presidential candidate.
So, all (CUPP presidential) candidates will be sent to the pool. If it works
out, we will have one consensus candidate, which is our candidate. The whole
arrangement is to see that the incumbency is broken.
“That is the
main aim and also, so that we do not have so many presidential candidates
scattering the votes. In essence, when support is given to anyone, who emerges
from the pool, everybody (in the CUPP) will be accepted. And then, it will be
an all-inclusive presidential ticket. We feel we have the best candidate and
our party is one of the best in the nation.”
Speaking on
the screening process, the National Chairman of the Nigeria Peoples Congress,
Suleiman Akasawua, said committees had been set up and that they had begun
their work.
Akasawua
explained that when the panels had concluded their work, they would inform the
coalition on how it would go about the 2019 presidential election.
He added,
“We have so many committees and all of them have a timeline. When they bring
their reports, we will analyse and take a position on the way forward. The
details of how the consensus candidate will emerge will be stated in the report
of one of the committees which has yet to submit its report.
“It is the
decision of the committee that will tell us the platform that we are going to
use in order to actualise the interest of the CUPP.
“The
campaign should commence in November. But before November, we are expecting
that we should tell Nigerians the way forward. At that time, we’ll work as a
united coalition of united parties in actualising the interest of the CUPP.”
Akasawua
stated that his party also had a presidential candidate in the race.
“Almost all
the parties in the CUPP have presidential candidates. After the necessary
talks, an agreement would be reached and some candidates will step down to
support the candidate of the CUPP as a united political entity,” he added.
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