by John Ameh and Adelani Adepegba
The
Peoples Democratic Party has said that mergers and alliances planned to
defeat it in 2015 will fail. The party spoke against the background of
plans by opposition parties to form mergers and alliances to battle its
candidates in the 2015 general elections.
The National Secretary of the ruling
party, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on
Tuesday, dismissed the planned alliances as ‘gang-ups’.
Two major opposition parties – the
Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change – are
believed to be in talks to defeat the PDP in 2015. Earlier this year,
the leaders of both parties had met in Kaduna to discuss the modalities
of an alliance that would unset the ruling party.
But the PDP secretary, who based his
assertion on certain events in the nation’s political history, insisted
that the alliances would not threaten the ruling party.
He added, “We don’t think we are
threatened by what we would call gang ups. In those days when the
National Party of Nigeria and Nigeria Peoples Party closed ranks, it was
called an accord. When the Unity Party of Nigeria and Great Nigeria
Peoples Party did the same, they called it gang up.
“Honestly speaking, ganging up is an
indication of some weaknesses. Why can’t a party stand on its own and
contest elections if it is sure that it would be acceptable to the
people? You don’t need to gang up.
“If you are ganging up then you don’t
have the strength. The only true national party today that cuts across
every nook and cranny of the Nigerian federation is the PDP. Gang up has
never succeeded; it will not succeed.”
Oyinlola also said that the PDP would stick to its zoning formula at all levels.
He added that it would be dangerous for the party to jettison the formula.
Only last month, a member of the PDP and
former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, had said that it was high time
the party dumped zoning as it was no longer relevant.
But Oyinlola argued that zoning was the glue that bound the different groups in the PDP together.
He said, “It is the binding glue that
holds the people together and, as such, it would be politically
dangerous to abandon it at this stage. That it is our binding force.
“What has endeared the PDP to people
from all over the country has been the zoning arrangement. It has given
hope to those in the minority that they could have access to power.
“There is an adage in my language
(Yoruba) that says when a medicine is working for you, you don’t throw
it away. So we will continue with the zoning arrangement because it is
working very well.”
He added that the Bamangar Tukur-led
National Working Committee of the PDP would soon undertake a
reconciliation tour of all the six geopolitical zones in order to bring
all its warring factions together.
“As you know, were it not for our
differences, we would have won Ogun State. We lost Oyo State because of
the differences between the Senator Rasheed Ladoja-led Accord Party and
the Alao-Akala-led PDP,” he said.
The National Secretary promised that the
face-off between the Presidency and the PDP-dominated National Assembly
over the 2013 budget oil benchmark would be resolved soon, through
dialogue.
He added that the party would continue
to be in control of its primaries, adding that it would not succumb to
attempts by the Independent National Electoral Commission to interfere
with its internal affairs.
According to him, under the Electoral Act 2010, INEC has no powers to dictate to parties on how to run their affairs.
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary, CPC,
Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said political alliance is part of constitutional
democracy, noting that the current government in Britain is a product of
an alliance.
He said, “We understand Oyinlola’s
paradigm. For a man who spent most of his adult life in the military,
where authoritarianism holds sway, it is inconceivable to expect him to
grasp (the concept of) political alliance.
“Again, when you also understand that
his purported re-election as governor was voided by a court of law, it
will be too much to expect such person to believe in election-winning
collaborations. Quite unfortunately, the anti-democratic vomit of the
grand patron of the PDP and the generallisimo of ‘do or die’ politics is
what all the members of the behemoth are munching and regurgitating. So
do you see where the PDP National Secretary is coming from?”
Although efforts made last night to get
the spokesperson for the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to react to
Oyinlola’s remarks were abortive, the opposition party had spoken on the
matter in August.
Mohammed had said, “What is the interest
of the PDP in whether the merger works or fails? It only shows it is
fearful. I want to assure you that when the merger works, it will be a
surprise to the ruling party.
“Our fear is that when it works, the PDP may not exist anymore because the party deteriorates every day.”
Punch
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