The Ag. National Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Abba Kawu Ali, expressed the party’s support for the merger of opposition parties to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
This was announced during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday in response to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s call for such a merger.
Ali said, “Just recently, former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was reported to have called for a merger of opposition parties as a way of checkmating the inordinate drive of the ruling APC towards a one-party state and protecting our hard-earned democracy.
“The NNPP sees this call from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as patriotic and a welcome development for which we unreservedly commend him.
“The NNPP, however, has modifications to that collaboration being proposed by Alh. Atiku Abubakar. It is our belief that such an arrangement should be all-encompassing and broad.
“To the former Vice President’s call, our party notes that this was the same bold initiative that the opposition parties signed up to in 2015 and which enabled the merger that led to the defeat of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“To that extent, the NNPP is reiterating its position that the former Vice President’s latest call is a proposal we applaud wholeheartedly.
“However, as we stated earlier, while we fully embrace this initiative and applaud it as a matter of necessity, the NNPP is looking at this issue from a much larger perspective and considering all factors inherent in it.
“Our party, without any iota of doubt, is open to collaboration, alliance and any arrangement with any of or all the political parties including PDP, Labour Party, and APC, so long as such collaboration, alliance or arrangement will be in the utmost interest of the Nigerian people and the protection and consolidation of Nigeria’s democracy.
“At the moment, we are studying the mood of the country and the political atmosphere. NNPP will welcome from any political party any initiative and oblige any invitation towards discussing any arrangement, aimed at protecting our people, our democracy and towards the much desired accelerated and sustainable development of our country.
“Thankfully, the whole country is not unmindful of the populist profile of the NNPP which draws its strength from our well -thought out Constitution and Manifesto as well as a robust Kwakwasiyya Movement dedicated to the emancipation of the common man.
“ It is for this singular reason of being a refuge of succour for the oppressed and largely dispossessed majority in our society that the Kwankwasiyya Movement and indeed the NNPP are consolidating and spreading its wings across communities in Nigeria’s North, South, East and West and beyond the shores of our country.”
