Thirty registered political parties have resolved to field and support one presidential candidate within the coalition for the 2019 general elections.
The parties, under the aegis of Coalition for a New Nigeria (CNN), have Alhaji Abdulkadir Salam of the Labour Party (LP) as chairman, Barrister Godson Okoye of the United Democratic Party (UDP) as secretary and Dr. Yunusa Tanko of the National Conscience Party (NCP) as spokesman.
This is coming barely two days after a former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to forget a second term on grounds of non-performance.
Addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Dr. Tanko, a former National Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said the 30 parties were consulting widely to seize power from APC in 2019.
Dr. Tanko specifically said the overall aim was to put an end to “bad governance” that had led to poverty, insecurity, nepotism, ethnicity in the country and strengthen the nation’s economy.
The political parties said the APC-led government had failed to take decisive action over killings in the country. They accused the government of allegedly allowing the nation to gradually slide into state of anarchy.
CNN said the APC had failed to fulfill its campaign promises to Nigerians.
“We are determined to take over power in 2019, and we are 30 political parties working together. We are concerned about the state of the nation.
“We are going to bring all the 30 political parties together on the 30th to show you how ready and prepared we are. We are working together to support a candidate within the coalition,” he said.
When Daily Trust sought to know whether the 30 parties were going into a merger, Tanko said, “No, it’s not going to be a merger. Yes, some political parties are interested in merger, but most of the parties are more interested in alliance.”
