-Seeks Exit of the ANPP From the Merger Agreement
ALL Progressives Congress, the newly formed political organization the middle of a tussle over acronym ownership with rival organization in the last few weeks, appear to be having no end to its troubles as internal rivalries brewing within for so long have broken to the surface.
Members of the parties that came together to form the All Progressives Congress, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, are crying foul over what they consider as unfair to their fortunes as the newly formed APC seeks to go forward to challenge the Peoples Democratic Party’s dominance in the 2015 general elections.
The ANPP is one of three other major poltical parties that coalesced together to form the APC. The other two parties are the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, led by retired General Muhammadu Buhari and the Bola Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.
A splinter group within the ANPP is calling for the withdrawal of the party from the merger to form APC, citing what it considers unequal treatment within the APC structure.
The group, in a letter addressed to the ANPP National Chairman, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, therefore gave the party’s leadership three weeks to pull out of the merger to avoid committing political suicide.
The letter dated April 2 was signed by the convener of the group and the Usuma Ward Chairman of the ANPP in Bwari Area Council, Abuja, Mallam Isa Bala. was copied to INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The faction said it was “fooled and deceived” by the Tinubu-led ACN into believing that the new political organization will cater to the overall interests of all parties involved.
According to the protesters, the All progressives Congress was the brainchild of a former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, who had in 2006 formed a political group with the acronym, APC.
The APC, the letter revealed, was registered in January 2006 but transformed to the ACN in August 2006 under Tinubu’s leadership .
The group argued that the same people who sponsored the “failed” APC were insisting on the acronym just to further their selfish political influence.
Copies of the letter was circulated to media orgnanizations on Thursday, excerpts of which is reproduced below.
“The merger could have also provided a strong two -party system in Nigeria which will produce a virile opposition as it is obtained in advanced democracies of the world.
“The gains of the merger cannot be over-emphasised as the generality of Nigerians had anxiously waited for its realisation.
“However, to our utter bewilderment, we have discovered the unholy, inordinate, ulterior motive of a few insatiable political gluttons, who are largely obsessed with the self-driven interest of expanding their political empire to the detriment of the greater majority of Nigerians.
“We the members of ANPP Concerned Stakeholders, therefore, call upon our national leadership to henceforth suspend involvement in the merger process until this and other questions are answered.
“It has become obvious that the merger partners are not treated as equal entities in the merger project, rather it is being dominated by the Bola Tinubu- led ACN.
“The interest of our great party is evidently, not adequately protected, in the present merging arrangement. Therefore, our party cannot surrender its identity that all our founding fathers have laboured for, to satisfy the interest of an individual.
“Consequently, we give our national leadership three weeks to suspend their involvement in the merger if this anomaly is not corrected. We also urge our national leadership to start discussing the possibility of forming alliance with the Congress for Progressive Change and other political parties on basis of mutual respect and equality for one another in the 2015 general elections .
“On this note, we encourage the CPC led by General (Muhammadu) Buhari to also review its stance and stake in the merger arrangement, as it is a hoax that can yield no political or democratic dividend.
“As earlier advocated, an alliance with CPC and other political parties where Gen. Buhari, a time-tested leader is presented as a presidential candidate, will garner an overwhelming acceptance from Nigerians.”
The leadership of the ANPP however dismissed of the claims of the splinter group, denying that the petitioners were never members of the ANPP.
“He is not a member of our party,” Chief Emma Eneuku, the publicity secretary of the party said of Bala, the splinter group’s leader, in his remarks also on Thursday.
“He is just one of those people they are using to distract what we are doing. A member of my party cannot just write INEC, we have a NEC (National Executive Committee) meeting on the 11th of this month, where everybody will come. Anyone who does not like what we are doing can approach the party. When somebody is working like this, you know he is not working for our party,” Eneuku said.
In a similar reaction, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Lai Mohammed, used the occasion to point in the direction of the governing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying that the PDP would do almost anything to ensure that it retains its power in the face of emerging concerted efforts to undermine its current dominance.
“The ANPP has disowned the man. It is part of the antics to distract us from what we are doing. The ANPP says they don’t know him; he is an agent being used by the PDP to derail the process,” Mr. Mohammed said on Thursday.
Acording to Mohammed, “The name APC did not even come from the ACN. If I can remember very well, it was the ANPP that even came with the name not us, what is his grouse? What has INEC got to do with this? I think he is just one who is seeking attention. We told Nigerians a few days ago that the Presidency will do everything to derail the merger; this is one of it.”
The CPC also reacted by saying that the development was part of the governing party’s agenda to derail the fortunes of the newly formed political organization, calling it a desperate ploy.
A statement by Rotimi Fasakin, the party’s spokesman, said that the PDP was making another “failed attempt” to undermine the any plans by the APC as a united front against the PDP.