The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described as a big joke that can never materialise, the plan by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to merge with other political parties in the country with a view to dislodge it (APC) in 2019.
Since its exit from the government at the centre in 2015, the PDP has continued to strategise on how to regain power by 2019 when another general election would be conducted, the latest being a plot to form a merger with some other parties to achieve the plan.
Already, the PDP has opened talks with the leaderships of seven political parties, including Labour Party (LP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) on how to align forces in order to wrest power from the APC by 2019.
Recall that former President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday, in Abuja, had declared that despite PDP’s defeat at the 2015 general elections, it remained the biggest and strongest party in Nigeria. He also boasted that the party would bounce back in 2019.
Leadership reports that the Deputy National Chairman (South), Engr. Segun Oni said that no party would be bigger than APC by 2019, maintaining that PDP and other parties that may align with her will go down in rumbles.
Oni said, “If PDP dies, there will be another opposition party. What I believe which is not visible is the idea of calling it a mega party, because no party that will emerge will be bigger than APC. That is what l’m saying. I have always predicted from the beginning, long before now, that PDP will go down in rumbles and that it will thereafter grind to powder. So, we are not saying that the PDP will not come back; we are saying, don’t call whatever political party that is coming a mega party. It cannot be bigger than the APC.”
But in a swift reaction, the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP said the APC was only being jittery over the alliance/merger talks between the major opposition party and other political parties in the country.
The national publicity secretary of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, while responding to the claim by the APC leadership that the merger plan was a joke, said that APC was in for a shocker in 2019 because the other political parties are desirous of working with the PDP to salvage the country from the current deplorable state it has been enmeshed in.
He said, “The other parties are desirous of working with PDP because they realise the danger of allowing the APC to continue unchallenged, considering the way they are running the country undemocratically. We are seeing the worse government since independence.
“And so, the other parties are desirous of working with PDP to reverse the downward trend and salvaging the country from its economic slide. People believe that it is the only the party (PDP) that can salvage the situation. The APC is jittery of the realignment between PDP and other parties, considering the damage they have done to the country. I can tell you that Nigerians are praying for a comeback of PDP.”
Lambasting the APC for playing down the talks among the opposition parties, Adeyeye said, “They can say what they like about it, but does it make sense for them to dabble into what they do not know about? Some of their party executives were ministers under the PDP. Will they say the government was not working then?”
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