PDP faults ACN, CPC merger move

AGAINST the backdrop of merger moves by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) ahead of the 2015 general election, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the step, saying that two main opposition political parties have dictatorial tendencies which may mar the deal.

According to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, a recent event in Ondo where former governor of Lagos State, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, allegedly imposed a candidate on ACN was an indication that no merger with the party would work.

The party said that while merger was a good development in a democracy, the proposed one would not be able to defeat PDP in any election.

“While the PDP is not losing sleep over the merger of the two opposition political parties since it is an exercise in democracy and since the both cannot defeat the PDP at elections, it is however not out of place for us to point out the major defects of the merger and why Nigerians will continue to reject it as an alternative to our great party.

“The onus is entirely on these two parties to accept these glaring facts and seek ways out of the situation or to continue with the delusion that the merger of brood of dictators does not disguise its relish for the funeral train, is what Nigerians need at the moment,” the statement said in part.

It added: “It is no secret that the governors of Lagos, Osun and Ekiti states as well as the woefully failed candidate of the party in the recent Ondo governorship election were Tinubu’s direct imposition. It is also a fact that Tinubu unilaterally chased out Ope Bamidele who won the primaries for Ekiti Central Senatorial District and imposed his preferred candidate. Nigerians can still remember how Tinubu’s wife made her way to the Senate.

“Does the ACN have a constitution beyond what Tinubu dictates? For a start, Tinubu’s position as the leader of the party has no place in the constitution of the ACN, yet the man usurps the functions of the party’s constitutional structures, rendering the officers redundant. The National Working Committee of the ACN, which is supposed to meet every two months according to section 7, 18a and c of its constitution has only met twice in February and August this year while the de facto NWC meetings hold daily at Boudillion, Lagos Court of Tinubu, the Emperor.

“Is that how to run a party that wants to give Nigeria its president? If the spokesman of a political party cannot issue a release except what an Emperor that enjoys an unconstitutional party title dictates, would he not resign and assume responsibilities as an aide to the Emperor and allow an independent mind to anchor the publicity of the party?”

The statement further said: “The fact of the merger is that of a double jeopardy as the case of the CPC is worse. Apart from the collywobbles of one man dictatorship, the party’s violent antecedent, and the unrepentant posturing of General Buhari, the owner of the party as again captured in his parable of the bloody baboon and monkey earlier this year in Kaduna is a recipe for a road to Somalia. That is not the preference Nigerians will ever imagine.

“At the bottom line, Nigerians are faced with the worst form of indecent propaganda from the duo of Lai Mohammed and Rotimi Fasheki whom Bola Tinubu also donated to the CPC. It is either they are attacking and insulting the President, the National Assembly or other institutions of democracy or losing sleep and get more rabid when their shortcomings are pointed out or are engaged in the illusion of an all powerful merger that will take over Nigeria.

“Unfortunately, these two men are political neophytes who cannot win councillorship elections in their respective wards against the PDP. These are green horns whose clout will at best fetch spokespersons of local government chapters were they members of our great party. No amount of attack on the President or the PDP will shift our focus from delivering on our mandate. 2015 will not be decided by personal insults on those in elected offices nor won in the pages of newspapers. It lies in the province of the Nigerian people. No matter their shenanigans, the PDP remains the party to beat.”

The ACN and CPC have been reported to have gone far in their talks over possible merger.