Leaders of the major opposition parties
across the states of the federation
yesterday said they were taking all
legitimate steps to ensure the success of
the newly formed All Progressive
Congress (APC).
In separate interviews with LEADERSHIP
WEEKEND, the leaders, who included
state and national chieftains of the parties
that formed the APC, said they had placed
national interests above regional and
personal ambitions in mobilising support
for the party.
In Kaduna State, the affected party
chairmen said they were adequately
carried along in all of the processes
leading to the merger. They expressed
optimism that the merger talks would work,
adding that APC’s chances of wrestling
power from the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) in Nigeria and in the states
were very bright.
The Kaduna State chairman of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr. Musa
Muhammed Soba, said “the opposition
parties that are making arrangement to
merge into APC held their respective
National Executive Committee (NEC)
meetings where resolutions were passed
in support of the merger. What remain is for
the parties to hold their conventions where
the decision for the merger would be
ratified in accordance with the constitutions
of the respective opposition parties. The
merger is on course and every necessary
sacrifice is needed to make it successful.”
Also, the chairman of the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) in the state,
Alhaji Ahmadu Yaro Cocacola, said the
party at the state level was working
assiduously for the success of APC. He
said they were adequately briefed of the
merger arrangement. “We are in support of
all that is being discussed to see to the
reality of the merger,” he said.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) said
the state party was well represented at the
talks.
According to the state party chairman,
Senator Lawal Aliyu, “our party at the
national level is carrying the state along;
the state is being represented in the
committee discussing the issue; the state
chapter is regularly briefed on all
deliberations on the merger.”
In Rivers State, the ACN has said it was
part of the formation of APC and was
liaising with other parties to make impact at
future polls in the state.
The publicity secretary of ACN in the state,
Jerry Needam, told LEADERSHIP
WEEKEND in Port Harcourt that their
involvement in the merger marked the end
of flagrant disregard for the rule of law and
acts of prodigality in the state.
Needam said: “The merger is a welcome
development. It shall entrust political
leadership of Rivers State in the hands of
progressives, God-fearing democrats and
men and women with the highest sense of
frugality with respect to taxpayers’ money.”
In Kwara State, the chairman of ACN, Mr
Kayode Olawepo, said “the merger of the
major opposition parties will radiate to
states at the end of the party’s national
convention. It is at the convention that the
new APC logo, name, flag will be ratified”.
Olawepo, who expressed optimism about
the workability of the merger plan, said “the
PDP’s view of this arrangement
notwithstanding, the merger remains the
best thing that has happened to Nigeria in
recent times”.
The state chairman of ANPP, Alhaji Taiwo
Eleja, said the party at the state level
participated actively in all the
arrangements that led to the merger of the
opposition parties.
“We are very, very much involved in this
merger arrangement. I spoke with my
national chairman last night (Thursday)
and he briefed me on the development so
far as well as on the next line of action”.
The state APC chairman, Alhaji Buhari
Suleiman, said as disciplined members of
the party they have no option but to toe the
line of the party’s national leaders. “All
along, the national secretariat of our party
has been briefing us on the development
and we are all in support of the merger
arrangement,” Suleiman stated.
The situation is the same in Niger State
where the opposition parties said they had
started working together in principle to
confront the PDP in 2015.
The chairman of CPC, Shuaibu Umar, said
that they were duly consulted before the
merger and that it would be made easier in
the state because of the longstanding
working arrangement among the
opposition parties.
The secretary of ACN in the state, Alhaji
Salman Yusuf, disclosed that they were
aware of the merger talks and were carried
along.
He restated that, before the talks, the
parties in the state had been working
together as one body and that the merger
would not pose any problem to the parties.
But, in Edo State, the Accord Party (AP)
has dissociated itself from the merger. It
expressed the fear that the presidential
ambition of some key players in the
alliance, if not well handled, could truncate
their quest to unseat the PDP.
In an exclusive interview with
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND in Benin, the
national secretary of the party, Dr. Samson
Isibor, hinged the decision of the party to
back out of the merger on the need to
strengthen the party, adding that “Accord
Party is new and untainted for the future”.
The state chapters of the CPC, Labour
Party (LP) and the ruling A CN have jointly
expressed sincerity, unity and selflessness
devoid of vaulting ambition that truncated
past attempts at merger.
The chairmen said they were waiting for
further directives from the national merger
committee before taking the next action.
The Katsina State caretaker committee
chairman of the CPC, Faruk Adamu Aliyu,
and his ACN counterpart, Ibrahim
Maidabino, said they were still awaiting the
directive of their national headquarters.
In Oyo State, the ACN said that the merger
of the parties was in fulfilment of the
prophecy of the late sage, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, while the ANPP noted that APC
had come to stay as “nobody can sabotage
it”.
ACN’s publicity secretary Mr Dauda
Kolawole said that the former premier of
the defunct Western Region (Awolowo)
had predicted that time would come in the
history of the country that progressives
would come together for the benefit of the
country and its people.
The state ANPP chairman, Alhaji Rasak
Folorunso, who said that the party was the
initiator of the merger, said that there was
no going back.
Former governor of Ogun State and
national leader of ACN Chief Olusegun
Osoba said the coming together of the
progressives was not for political reasons
but to salvage the country from drifting
further from the years of the PDP misrule.
Osoba said the soul of the country must be
redeemed from the scavengers.
In Benue State, only the ACN is visible in
the state’s politics. The acting deputy
chairman of ACN, Mr Tersoo Har Orpiin,
said the leadership of the party in the state
was still waiting for the national leadership
for further action.

Same ni still pdp come 2015

APC will surprise a lot of ppl