Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)
By Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Ibrahim Shuaibu
The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has barred its National
Leader, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), all members of the
party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC)
from being part of its delegation to negotiate with other opposition
political parties towards forming an alliance ahead of the 2015 general
election.
The party’s decision is coming just as the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP) National Chairman, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, unfolded plans by the
planned opposition alliance to adopt zoning for the 2015 elections.
A source said at the weekend that the decision to exclude Buhari and
others from the merger negotiation was part of the resolutions reached
during the last NEC and BoT meetings of the CPC.
THISDAY gathered that the CPC’s decision was taken in order to avoid a
conflict of interest and to allow other party members play active roles
in the merger negotiations.
“We have resolved that none of BoT or NEC members will be a member of
our merger committee to prevent a conflict of interest. We felt that
since the committee’s final report on the merger negotiations would be
tabled for discussion and approval by the two bodies, their membership
of the committee will not be fair,” the source said.
Based on the latest decision of the party, both Buhari, the National
Chairman of the party, Prince Tony Momoh, and other national officers of
the party will no longer be part of the negotiating team to actualise
the opposition coalition.
The source said the meeting of the BoT also agreed on modalities for
reconstituting the merger committee, which will comprise two members
from each of the six geopolitical zones.
According to the source, representation of the party at the ongoing
opposition merger talks have led to intrigues, leadership squabbles and
is almost threatening the exercise.
THISDAY learnt that the sudden emergence of a former Minister of
Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Nasiru el- Rufai, to lead the
initiatives for the talks did not go down well with some party members
regarded as conservatives.
The aggrieved members, it was further learnt, opposed el-Rufai’s role,
insisting that the mandate given the former minister as chairman of CPC
Renewal Committee does not extend to negotiating with other opposition
parties.
The conservatives, led by the party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Buba
Galadima, were said to have preferred a former Buhari Presidential
Campaign Director, Sule Hamman, to preside over the merger committee.
Following the heated debate at the party’s NEC meeting over whose
interest is best protected in the merger talks, it was resolved that
none of the present leadership of the party would be nominated as
members of the merger committee to give room for a fair and unbiased
appraisal of the final report of the committee when it is ready.
However, as CPC considers the composition of its negotiating committee,
Onu, at the weekend, expressed optimism that the merger talks among the
opposition parties would succeed this time around.
While speaking on the merger talks among opposition parties during an
audience phone-in programme anchored by the Federal Radio Corporation
over the weekend, he also said the parties might consider an alliance
if merger did not work.
The planned alliance, Onu added, would incorporate zoning into the procedure to field candidates in the 2015 elections.
‘‘My party believes in coming together with other opposition parties.
Efforts are on in talks among the parties. It has never happened before
that three years before the general election, the opposition in the
country are talking about merging. We believe because of this, and God’s
help, we will succeed. I want to assure Nigerians that this time the
merger will work with the help of the Almighty.
‘‘Our goal is a merger, in the case it is not actualised, we shall form
an alliance. We are not against any political party or individual. We
are only working so that the country should play a major role in the
world as it is naturally endowed to be respected. In short, the nation
is our first consideration in all that we do.
“The ANPP believes in zoning. We uphold it; it is in our constitution.
At the right time, there will be zoning for the offices in which we will
field candidates in the 2015 elections,” he said.
Onu said zoning would be a key aspect in the constitution of the coalition.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the CPC in Katsina State, Alhaji Mamman
Abubakar Dan-Musa, has also expressed the confidence that the merger
talks with other parties, especially the Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN), will herald a new political phase in the history of Nigeria.
According to him, “with the proposed merger with the ACN, Nigerians
will witness a new phase of politics in the next dispensation.”
Dan Musa, who spoke with journalists at the weekend, said the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had remained in power since 1999 due to
lack of credible alternative.
“With the proposed merger of opposition parties, no rigging or electoral fraud will henceforth go unchallenged,” he said.
ThisDay
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