Seven political parties reportedly in merger negotiation with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of 2019 general elections, News Punch understands.
The PDP leadership, last night, towards forming a formidable political front to capture power in 2019, met with leaders and selected delegates from the seven parties, report earlier published by New Telegraph says
Though names of the parties are yet to be disclosed, but our source revealed that that Labour Party (LP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) are among the parties PDP might be forging an alliance with.
About two weeks ago, Chairman of the PDP Strategy Review and Interparty Affairs Committee, Prof. Jerry Gana, met with the SDP leader, Chief Olu Falae in Lagos.
The meeting might be in connection with the moves to merging with the SDP. At the submission of the committee’s final report to the PDP leadership yesterday, Gana announced that the initial contacts made by the committee “have yielded positive responses from seven people-focused and social democratic parties.”
He, however, said the meeting between the PDP National Caretaker Committee and leaders and selected delegates of the seven parties has “nothing to do with the rumoured mega party, but a separate and highly principled initiative of the PDP.”
According to Gana, “Our desire is to have all genuine democrats and friends of the people to flow together and provide a fresh and trustworthy leadership to promote and ensure a people-friendly process of national development.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, confirmed the meeting later at a press conference.
A source, who confided in our correspondent yesterday, said that PDP and PRP met penultimate Saturday and have raised a six-man Contact Committee each, for further negotiations.
“Professor Jerry Gana will head the PDP six-man committee, while the National Leader of PRP, Alhaji Balarabe Musa will head his party’s team,” the source confided in New Telegraph.
Although details of the maiden meeting, which held in Abuja about 12 days ago, remain sketchy, the source said that PRP had insisted on an alliance and not a merger because it wants to maintain its unique pro-masses ideology.
When contacted, Balarabe, a former governor of Kaduna State, confirmed that a meeting between his party and PDP actually held, but didn’t divulge the details.
He, however, told New Telegraph that: “PDP has approached us even before the 2015 elections. And we had an understanding that in the event that they lose the presidential election, we will come together to strengthen democracy in Nigeria. That time, they will be in the opposition.”
The chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was specifically mandated to get across to Balarabe in order to sound him out on the possibility of working together.
It is still not clear what kind of alliance will exist between PDP and PRP, but another source said that the working relationship is aimed at making inroads in the North, the stronghold of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“In spite of the failure of the APC-led government, the masses still love President Muhammadu Buhari. Balarabe and PRP are also very popular in the North, so we intend to slice into Buhari’s heartland,” he revealed.
PDP had maintained that it is not part of the rumoured mega party and does not want to change its name.
Meanwhile, the submission of the Gana report attracted many founding fathers of the party. Among PDP elders present at the occasion included former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma; businessman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; former Jigawa State governor, Dr. Sule Lamido and Ambassador Aminu Wali.
Chairman of PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said the party’s leadership does not want to be distracted by the plan of people who want to make PDP remain irrelevant.
“We have been facing challenges. One of the ways evolved to hold PDP down and destroy opposition party in the country was to tie us down and make us irrelevant by using the court to tie us down,” he added.
Makarfi said the party has realised its mistakes, which he stated include imposition of candidates and taking people for granted, which the report identified. He apologised on behalf of PDP leaders for these mistakes, and described the Gana report as “excellent”, which he added, would help in repositioning the PDP.
Ciroma, who felt elated at the gathering of members of the party since PDP lost the 2015 general elections, said he was convinced that the party is still alive.
“I feel very proud of being here. I feel proud of being involved with the PDP. I feel very proud of being one of the members who initiated the formation of this party.
And I can say today that the party is alive and well,” he said. Iwuanyanwu, who dismissed the report that he has left the PDP, described the Jerry Gana’s report as a very important milestone in the rebuilding process of the party.