Chief Guy Ike Ikokwu, second republic chairman of
the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) in Anambra State,
was a member of the Strategy Committee that
tried to hammer out a merger among four
progressive opposition parties to stop the then
ruling National Party of Nigeria(NPN).
Reminiscing on how the merger was scuttled,
Ikokwu, a foundation member of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and former chairman of the
PDP in Anambra State, lamented that the late sage
Chief Obafemi Awolowo would have been elected
as president in the second republic if his followers,
who were in the UPGA Strategy Committee, had so
desired. He said current moves by some opposition
parties to merge into All Progressive Congress
(APC) would not yield electoral laurels at the
highest level – Aso Rock.
On this score, he said leaders of the various
factions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
(APGA) should jettison joining APC and join hands
to prevent APGA from failing in Anambra because
the party will cease to exist if it fails in the state.
You were a member of the Strategy Committee of
the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) in
the second republic. Why didn’t the alliance work?
The Strategy Committee of UPGA in the second
republic was made up of four parties: the Unity
Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP),
Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP), and Peoples
Redemption Party (PRP). These four parties had
hoped to evolve a very close alliance fielding single
candidates for the constituencies across the
country based on their own evaluation and party
primaries.
The main figures for UPGA were Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Waziri
Ibrahim, Malam Aminu Kano, Abubakar Rimi and
Balarabe Musa. The main aim of the alliance was to
prevent the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) then
headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president from
sweeping the polls and ruling the country
politically.
The alliance’s Strategy Committee, in its
painstaking and calculating methods, had shared
all the positions in the legislature and the
executive and government agencies in such a way
as to prevent any single party from having
dominance over the other.
This was done to the satisfaction of all the parties.
Over 2,000 positions were shared but then the
problem of accommodating the leaders,
particularly Dr. Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, and the other leaders of GNPP and PRP
became a very thorny issue due to the historical
antecedents of the political roles played by the
individuals concerned.
At the last meeting of the Strategy Committee,
headed by the former Governor of Lagos State,
Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the basic and final problem
was how to resolve the ambitions, political or
otherwise of the two main leaders – Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo both of whom
had played very distinguished roles in the anti-
colonial struggle and the emancipation of Nigeria
into an independent country. Chief Awolowo was
the leader of the UPN, which controlled five states,
whereas Dr. Azikiwe was the leader of the NPP,
which controlled three states.


www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/how-yoruba-leaders-scuttled-awolowos-presidential-ambition-ikokwu/

Rarely?...........hmmmm

Why the hidden post afam and oam4j

I believe him, that man is a born again xtian and tells the truth always.

Subscribing..........