Opposition Parties, Ganging-Up Against PDP?

The political storm has started building up. One can only imagine its momentum as the 2015 general elections draw closer.

Political leaders of opposition parties seem to be at their wits end going by the political under currents characteristic of early preparations for election. However, almost three years ahead of the 2015 elections, they have started strategizing  to wrest power and control of governance from the ruling party at the centre.

Towards achieving this task, the opposition political parties plan to form a formidable common platform ahead of the elections. To ensure the conceptualisation of the political alliance, the leadership of the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) has set up a 20-Man Merger Committee under the leadership of former Presidential Candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa.

The former Governor of Yobe State, now a Senator, Bukar Abba Ibrahim was recently quoted as saying “ANPP would soon conclude its merger plans with other opposition political parties in order to wrestle power from the People Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.”

According to him, “all the opposition political parties have realised their mistakes and had resolved to forge a common agenda to tackle PDP in 2015.”

On the part of the Action Congress of Nigeria  (ACN), the party has already set up a strong panel under its chieftain, Chief Tom Ikimi, to hold talk with the ANPP and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on the need for merger.

The National Publicity Secretary of  ACN, Alhaji  Lai Mohammed, recently said the two political parties, ACN and CPC, are going to finalise merger talks by October 2012. The party’s  spokesman said the ongoing talks were not about the ACN and CPC alone, but a phenomenon that would see to the coming together of progressive forces in the country, irrespective of party affiliation, to provide a credible alternative to the ruling party at the centre.

Mohammed said “what is coming from the ACN/CPC is more than just talks, it is going to be like the Noah’s Ark because all politicians of like minds are coming together.”

In the thinking of the opposition political parties, an alliance or merger had become imperative in the chequered political development of the country now, given the fact that the PDP-led government had failed to impact the dividends of democracy on the people, and that the only way they could “kick” PDP out of governance at the centre is to come together.

But the PDP has dismissed such ongoing moves by opposition parties to form an alliance aimed at wrestling political power from the party come 2015 general elections. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metue, said the party is not threatened in any form by such an alliance since PDP remains the only truly national political party committed to the continued existence of Nigeria.

He said,” At the appropriate time, Nigerians will decide whether to entrust their great nation into the hands of regionalists, doomsday prophets and pro-anarchists or to the safe hands of the PDP’.

The party’s spokesman emphasised that PDP as a political party is the only party in Nigeria with a strong presence in all the 9,572 electoral wards, and that the party would rely on its intimidating membership as well as its credible performance to win the general elections in 2015.

Meanwhile, Nigerians are earnestly waiting to see how far the opposition parties can go with their alliance and merger plans within the context of the chequered history of irreconcilable political differences associated with political alliance and merger.

Today, one of the opposition parties,  All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is completely engrossed in leadership crisis with the party becoming rudderless based on the conflict of interests between the two elected Governors of the party.

A Public Affairs Analyst, Mr Wisdom Dike, said,” the conflicting political interests of APGA’s two elected Governors, Peter Obi of Anambra State and Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State respectively on leadership crisis within the party portends from the onset a divisive tendency for the opposition parties alliance/merger.

“The proponents of the alliance merger cannot leave out APGA in the merger plan. The two elected governors of the  party are crucial for any formidable political alliance,” he noted.

On the part of the CPC formed few months to the 2011 general elections, the party is presently in a time of soul searching to overcome the crisis of leadership that arose largely from the conduct of the party’s primaries. A reflection on the history of political alliance/merger in Nigeria, however, shows that opposition political parties’ alliance/merger have always been merely cosmetic political alliance without any resultant effects.

A political scientist and lecturer in the Department of Political  Science, University of Uyo, Dr Monday Dickson, said “political alliance/merger in Nigeria is merely a talk show, practically, Nigerians need a concrete realisation of the opposition political parties merger to challenge a ruling party and provide more dividends of democracy.”

According to him, “the political merger is a good plan, lets wait and see the outcome of the alliance among the opposition political parties.”

It will be recalled that shortly after independence, the Northern People Congress (NPC) and the National Council of Nigeria Congress (NCNC) formed an alliance, while the Action Group (AG) remained the opposition political party.

But before the 1964 general elections, the NPC/ NCNC alliance had irretrievably broken down, giving rise to the formation of new alliances by other political parties such as the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) and the Nigeria National Alliance (NNA).

In the UPGA were the NCNC, AG, Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU) and the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) led by Late Senator Joseph Talka, while the NNA had NPC and the newly formed Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) led by Chief Samuel Akintola, a breakaway faction of AG.

The NNA was ideologically and politically cohesive, but UPGA was a collection of diverse ideological political leaders. The political alliance among the UPGA endured for a while because of the imperative needs for them to wrestle political power from the NNA, but the military coup of 1966 truncated everything.

Towards the 1983 general elections of the Second Republic, the opposition political parties, the United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Nigeria People Party (NPP) formed an alliance called the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA) to confront the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

But the greatest albatross of that alliance/merger was the irreconcilable political disagreement of who to be the common candidate of the alliance.

The problem remained unresolved and led to the disintegration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe,  Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri and Mallam Aminu Kano.

Currently, as 2015 approaches, the opposition political parties are faced with a  similar chequered history of political merger/ alliance. The question thus is “can there be any difference now?”

Senator Abba Ibrahim may have aptly stated it when he said the issue of merger in the past was never done with all serious intent among the parties.

“This time around Nigerians expect cohesion.”

Philip-Wuwu Okparaji