NO fewer than 16 opposition political parties are neck-deep in Alliance talks to remain relevant in the polity, as the race towards 2015 elections commences.
The alliance may lead to the formation of a different mega party other than the yet-to-be-registered All Progressives Congress spearheaded by the Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, All Nigeria Peoples Party and a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance.
According to a Punch newspaper report published on Sunday, opposition parties had already met at the weekend in a hotel in Abuja, with a presidential candidate in 1999, Chief Olu Falae, as the leader.
Falae was a consensus presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy and the All Progressive Party, now ANPP, in the 1999 election in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party emerged as winner.
The opposition parties at the meeting, constituted a three-man committee with members drawn from the Action Alliance, United Democratic Party and the National Conscience Party.
One of the political parties in the new alliance, Advanced Congress of Democrats,held its National Executive Committee meeting on Saturday at Jikwoyi, a suburb of Abuja, where its members ratified the decision of the National Working Committee to participate in the Falae-led alliance talks.
At the ACD congress, the party’s National Chairman, Yusuf Yakub, lamented that the country was going through hard times due to lack of good leadership.
“The party in power was not able to deliver to Nigerians the dividends that are supposed to come with democracy. These dividends are basic things like food, shelter, health care, security, employment and enabling environment, where electricity, good roads, clean water etc are available for investments in all sectors to thrive,” he said.
Yakub later confirmed to our correspondent that his party attended the meeting chaired by Falae.
According to him, other opposition parties need to form a formidable force to meet up with the challenge posed by the PDP and APC.
“There were so many opposition political parties that attended the meeting; I assure you something good will come out of it. The alliance will be a third alternative to Nigerians,” he said.
On why the parties involved in the new alliance did not join forces with the APC, Yakub said, “Most of the political parties in Nigeria that claim to be progressives are not really progressives. If you look at their antecedents, you will find out that they are also capitalists. It is just a game of interest; this one trying to outsmart that one”.