[size=14pt]Opposition parties talk up alliance ahead presidential poll[/size]
By Festus Owete
April 4, 2011 04:48AM

Although the Presidential election is barely five-days away, some northern politicians are lobbying the main opposition parties to produce a consensus candidate.

To achieve this, they recently initiated fresh talks among Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to get a common candidate that will confront President Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

As the opposition parties have yet to agree to a consensus candidates, events of the last few days seem to be threatening that prospect.

At the weekend, Mr Ribadu felt sufficiently spooked by claims he had withdrawn from the race that he issued a release reaffirming his candidacy. Rumour had been rife last Friday that he had agreed to step down in favour of Mr Buhari.

“My attention has been drawn to the claim, which started first as an April Fool joke, yesterday, and is now made viral by opposition CPC members, that I have stepped down for Muhammadu Buhari in what is termed a consensus arrangement,” he said.

“First, I must clarify for my teeming supporters, our ever progressive ACN party members and the millions of young people of this country who have trained their sights toward, and have sacrificed so much for a better Nigeria, that this is wicked falsehood.

“Secondly, I want to stress the point that this cheap scheme is deliberately calculated to abort our democratic march through manipulation, and through the hijack of our right to electoral choice, a central value of a true democracy.”

Quest for a northern President

The consensus initiative is coming months after the failure of a similar one aimed at preventing Mr Jonathan from becoming the presidential candidate of the PDP during the party’s primaries, which held last January.

Mr Jonathan had faced four main aspirants, including a former military president, Ibrahim Babangida; a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; a former national security adviser, Aliyu Gusau and governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.

The process, driven by the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) led by a former finance minister, Adamu Ciroma, resulted in the choice of Mr Atiku, who eventually lost to Mr Jonathan at the special convention of the party in Abuja.

The fresh move by politicians, under the aegis of Arewa Youth Action for Change (ACAC) and a few northern elders is backed by the same ideology as the NPLF, which is to return a northerner to the presidency following the demise of former president, Umaru Yar’Adua, himself a northerner.

Members of the northern youths group are insistent that Mr Jonathan should give way to a northerner as president in May and that since the project failed on the PDP platform, an easy recourse could be made to the other parties, notably the major ones fielding candidates from the north in the April 9 election.

The plan is to reach an accord similar to the one that the ANP (All Nigeria Party) reached the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999. Both parties presented former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae as their joint candidate; though he lost to the PDP’s Olusegun Obasanjo.

Ibrahim Modibbo, the spokesperson for Mr Ribadu, confirmed that his principal has been involved in the talks.

“I can tell you that they are still talking and the outcome will be made known at the appropriate time,” he told NEXT last week.

The national publicity secretary of the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin confirms this as well.

“The discussions are still on. In politics, negotiations don’t end because it involves give and take. On our part, we are open to such negotiations so far they do not depreciate our values or what we stand for,” he said.

“But this project is not just about Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau but about you and I.

The eminent Nigerians of northern extraction who want this thing are not doing it for themselves but to save the country. Buhari has said over and over again that the only party he cannot talk to is the PDP but the other parties he is open to them.”

A little matter of ego

Some analysts have said reaching an agreement between the three parties on a common candidate is not workable. Dare Ajayi said one main drawback was that the presidential poll is only a few days away.

“Although, in accordance to the Electoral Act, a candidate can withdraw from the electoral race any moment, it remains to be seen how the three parties can, within the few days, educate their teeming members on how they should vote on the day of the election.”

He however said “Atiku’s loss to Jonathan at the PDP primary should be enough caution to anyone talking up consensus along regional and sectional lines.”

Another thorny issue he pointed out is who gets to step down, especially as months of prior meetings among the leaders of these parties, before they chose their presidential candidates, had failed to produce such an alliance.

Other things to be worked out during merger talks, include the sharing of offices and position if the coalition wins.

“It is very likely that the ego trip responsible for the failure of the ACN and CPC alliance talks recently will also trail this latest efforts,” a member of the ACN said last Friday.

Already, those in CPC believe Mr Buhari towers above his counterparts. A retired general who ran the country as military head of state between 1983 and 1985, he was also presidential candidate in 2003 and 2007 on the platform of ANPP, but was defeated by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Yar’Adua.

“You don’t go to an examination and tell the brightest candidate to hand over his first position to the second or third candidate. This is antithetical to rationality. It is not something you will readily see,” Mr Fashakin said.

But the other candidates said their parties have better structures than Buhari’s CPC, which is only about a year in existence but has achieved some level of popularity, particularly in the north.

At present, the ANPP controls three state governments, namely Kano, Yobe and Borno while the ACN has four states in its kitty. They are Ekiti, Osun, Edo and Lagos.

Of the trio, only Mr Buhari has not publicly given indications that he could step down for whoever becomes the choice of the northern politicians.

Messrs Ribadu and Shekarau had reportedly given indication that they could withdraw for whoever emerges among the three.

But Emma Eneukwu, who speaks for the ANPP, said the issue of who flies the flag will be resolved naturally this week.

“What is going to happen is that after the National Assembly, the party that has the most seat may be allowed to produce the presidential candidate if the ongoing talks sail through. I think this is the mind of those handling the discussions,” Mr Eneukwu told NEXT in a telephone chat last Friday.

Although the three parties and their candidates have successfully cooperated in the recent past, especially in jointly refusing to show up in the debate organized by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG), it remains to be seen how their cooperation can defeat Mr Jonathan.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5687104-146/opposition_parties_talk_up_alliance_ahead.csp

He however said “Atiku’s loss to Jonathan at the PDP primary should be enough caution to anyone talking up consensus along regional and sectional lines.”

It will fail again, just like Ciroma's Atiku project. Thats the way of ethnically bigoted politics.
A new Nigeria is being born.
Fresh Air 2011!

I thought the argument by some of the Northern politicians was that according to PDP zoning arrangement, the North was expected to still produce the president; so now they want to infect the opposition parties with that doomed scheme? If the opposition parties form an alliance on the basis of this ethnic/regional sentiment, that'll confirm that politics in Nigeria is just filled with Jokers.

Dav.e:

I thought the argument by some of the Northern politicians was that according to PDP zoning arrangement, the North was expected to still produce the president; so now they want to infect the opposition parties with that doomed scheme? If the opposition parties form an alliance on the basis of this ethnic/regional sentiment, that'll confirm that politics in Nigeria is just filled with Jokers.

The PDP zoning argument has always been a cover for their ethnically bigoted politics.
It is quite clear now that the very same Ciroma cabal are holding nocturnal meetings with the three willing Fulani contestants.

Shame on them and their "born to rule" ways, Nigeria is being reborn.

This guys are just wasting their time, let them come out with any plan and we'll trounce them as usual. Fresh air is blowing three ethnic bigoted idiots into confusion

This guys are just wasting their time, let them come out with any plan and we'll trounce them as usual. Fresh air is blowing three ethnic bigoted idiots into confusion