By GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE
BENIN—FORMER governor of Edo State and chieftain of Action Congress
of Nigeria, ACN, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Sunday, said that the
purpose of opposition political parties coming together to form a mega
party was not solely to remove the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from
office but to create a credible alternative platform for Nigerian
electorate.
Oyegun, who spoke with Vanguard in an interview in Benin, also
denied the assertion by a former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Alhaji
Abubakar Tsav, that Southern leaders were beating the drum of the
dismembering of the country and advised the North to look inward in
finding a solution to the problem of Boko Haram.
He said: “The formation of a mega party is not for the sole aim of
contesting the 2015 presidential election because that would be
interpreted to mean that our sole purpose is to remove PDP. We pray that
happens, but the core of our coming together is to present to the
Nigerian electorate an alternative; an alternative with a credible
message; an alternative that identifies with their pains and
aspirations.
“As at today, no matter how we abuse PDP, or how aware we are of the
mis-governance of the country, Nigerians have no credible alternative to
PDP. They are the only ones that seem to have given themselves a
seemingly image of a national party with a national spread.
“We are trying to construct for the benefit of the Nigerian people,
an alternative that will also have a national image and a national
spread. To re-emphasise what I said earlier, we want a party that
identifies with the people, with the hope and aspirations of the
Nigerian people. We will make that very clear in the message we have
when the right time comes.
”We are making reasonable progress, treading very cautiously and
slowly. We are not unaware that there are problems, interests and
intrigues within each group, but the message we have for everybody and
for ourselves is that whatever interest we have within the party, the
interest of the people and the Nigerian nation is clearly more
important. That is the premise from which we are approaching it.”
Vanguard
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