Leaders of 39 political parties including the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Reformed All Progressives Congress
(R-APC) have this afternoon gathered at the Yar’Adua Centre to sign a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The meeting at the Shehu Musa Yaradua Centre in the Federal Capital
Territory, was convened less than 225 days to the general elections.
Leaders of political parties in attendance include that of Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo-backed African Democratic Congress (ADC),
Social Democratic Party of Nigeria (SDP), National Conscience Party (NCP),
Labour Party, and a host of other newly registered parties.
Some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who broke
out of the ruling party to form the Reformed APC are also present.
PDP National Chairman Uche Secondus, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,
R-APC Chairman Buba Galadima, and the lawmaker representing Kogi West,
Senator Dino Melaye, are among the prominent politicians at the meeting.
The objective of the meeting is to form a grand alliance for a singular
presidential candidate that will wrest power from the APC in the
forthcoming presidential election.
The meeting held barely one day after the PDP claimed the APC was on the
“throes of death” and that it was already suffering from pre-defeat trauma
ahead of the 2019 elections.
In a statement by their National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan on
Sunday, the party described the ruling party as a “now shattered APC”,
saying the party had become intensely nervous over the soaring popularity
of the PDP and the surge of Nigerians into their fold as a repositioned
and rebranded party.
“The APC is particularly unsettled by the huge successes recorded by the
Liyel Imoke-led PDP Contact and Integration Committee, in seamlessly
galvanizing alliances among stakeholders across other parties, including
those returning from the overtly dysfunctional and derelict APC.
“The APC is further disconcerted by the spirit of accommodation, agreement
and oneness of purpose that pervade the alliances among old, new and
returning members of the PDP in our key structure across all the states of
the federation, particularly in Sokoto, Kogi, Kwara and Kano states, where
all new and returning members have been accorded very warm reception,” the
PDP had claimed in the statement.