SIGNALING a repeat of history, celebrations that initially attended the announcement of the successful merger of leading opposition parties into All Progressive Congress is taking predictable flak from leading politicians of the South-Eastern extraction.
The formation of the party was announced with pomp and glee on Thursday as the amalgam of Congress for Progressive Change, Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party and All Peoples Great Alliance, among other lesser known political parties.
Twice-failed presidential aspirant Muhammadu Buhari, one of the main facilitators of the APC, had said that the emergence of the mega opposition platform would ensure a successful wrestling of power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Nigeria.
Speaking in the same vein, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress of Nigeria also said that the newly formed party was on a mission to rescue Nigeria in terms of job creation and responsible governance with integrity.
However, in a paradoxical but not surprising twist to the joy of the united opposition, whose formation is expected to lead into the natural evolution of Nigeria into a two-party political system, elements from the predominantly south-eastern All Peoples Grand Alliance dissociated themselves from the talks that led to the formation.
The development is being seen as a sad reminder of the painful betrayals of the second and third republics. Back then, politicians of south-eastern origin had repeatedly ditched attempts at uniting with middle-belt politicians, south western politicians and core northern progressive elements to contest against ultra-conservative federalists tin the Northern People’s Congress.
The group that protested Friday’s merger claimed that while they are not opposed to the amalgamation of political forces to battle the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party, they however protest what they saw as poor consultations that preceded the announcement of the newly formed All Progressive Congress.
“Our attention has been drawn to a press conference by a group of ten (10) Governors, including Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State after meeting in Lagos endorsing a “merger of some opposition Parties in Nigeria,” the jointly-signed statement by the politicians stated.
“While we are not against the establishment of a mega opposition party, we believe that the issue of merger of political parties is a very serious matter that needs adequate consultations before a Governor participates and makes public statement. We wish to state that we were never invited, consulted or informed about any political parties merger,” reads the statement signed by Tim Menakaya, a member of the party’s Board of Trustees.
“We categorically state that All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has never participated in any merger talk with any political party and is therefore not in the merger. We were never consulted by anybody before such statement of our involvement was issued.”
The statement described Mr Okorocha’s involvement with the APC as “ridiculous and unfortunate” as the issue of merging with other parties was not discussed at the party’s last National Executive Committee meeting held last July and during other stakeholder’s meeting of the party.
The statement said the party’s “concern at the moment is to restructure, nurture and build a strong APGA capable of winning elections across the states of Nigeria” and does not intend to merge with any political party.
The unstated underlying fear of the All Peoples Grand Alliance leaders is that Mohammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu and others do not really posses the progressive ideals of the left-of-center leanings to which they subscribe.
There is also concern that the All Peoples Congress would bend towards Islam in view of the fact that the leadership of the three main parties of the alliance are known Muslims from the south-west and the north.
In the view of political observers in Nigeria, northerners do very little to hide their dismay for any leadership that that is not Islamic. They point to examples as the case with influential Muslim preachers like Sheikh Gumi from Kaduna who often warn that it is a taboo to vote non-Muslims.