Confident that the proposed merger of major opposition parties would succeed, the National Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP], Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, on Monday boasted that the merger would solve many of the problems plaguing the country today.
Onu stated this while receiving two Kogi State House of Assembly members who were returning to the ANPP after defecting from the party on whose platform they won their elections.
The lawmakers, Hon Michael Foluso Daniel [Mopa-Muro] and Hon Barrister Henry Ojuola [Yagba East], were accompanied to the National Secretariat of the ANPP this afternoon by the ANPP Kogi State Chairman, Comrade Patrick Daudu who presented them to the leadership of the party.
Welcoming their return, Onu said ‘‘the ANPP is interested in leading Nigeria. We are working with other major opposition parties, to ensure that we enter into a relationship, so that for the first time in the history of Nigeria, major opposition parties will come together to form a strong party, stable and prepared to do what is necessary to ensure that there is change in the country.
‘‘Nigeria needs this merger, Nigeria wants change. This is the only way we will have effective competition, and then ensure that the will of the people will remain supreme. We can see that competition is very good. It engenders zeal; we see it in the performance of the Super Eagles. Our Super Eagles in South Africa they have done us proud, they just reached Semi Finals, and by the grace of God, will reach the Finals. The coach ensured that there was competition between home based players and foreign based players, for positions in the field. If that did not happen there wouldn’t have been success particularly in our encounter with the Elephants of Cote D’ivore.
”You can see competition is productive. It is healthy and productive. It has also happened before in our country, in the telecommunications industry. Before, not everybody could afford phones, but now after many companies entered and there was competition, even market women and students all have telephones. So with competition in the nation’s political arena we will find that many of the problems troubling Nigeria will be solved.’’
Speaking earlier, Kogi State ANPP chairman, Daudu told the lawmakers ‘‘We are happy to receive you. It is a thing of joy to welcome back two of our very important members.”
He said “they left our party but have decided to come back. These are people who hold very important positions in their government. We welcome you with open hands. We will continue to utilize your experiences and skills in rebuilding our party,’’
One of the lawmakers Hon Barrister Henry Ojuola, who spoke on behalf of the returnees assured the party that they are back for good, and will give their best to ensure that every member of the ANPP in Kogi State join the efforts for the merger of the opposition.
He said, ‘‘thank you very much for receiveing us back. We are back and we are back fully. We will do our best to ensure that the councilors and others of the ANPP join the merger. ANPP has won in Kogi State before and we can win again. What we need to do now is to go back and re-strategise and re-evangelise in the state, and take our party back to the path of greatness.’’