As 2019 approaches, the main opposition party, PDP and over 40 other parties have agreed to join forces to oust Buhari. While these parties are not merging to form a single party, they are simply trying to come together to produce one candidate who will contest against Buhari.
The parties are currently meeting to harmonize their positions and possibly reach working arrangements. Explaining the modality being employed in this coming together, the National Chairman of one of the parties said “What we have is not a merger, but a coalition of over 42 registered political parties coming together to challenge the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The parties have voluntarily come together on their own to save Nigeria from its present challenges.
“We plan to form a Government of National Unity. Buhari is already an outgoing President. He will be defeated like a baby boxer. At the end of the day, the political parties will confront Buhari with one individual that will defeat him. The person may come from the PDP, SDP, LP, or PPA.”
Some political parties that make up the coalition are: Accord Party,AP; Action Alliance, AA; Advanced Congress of Democrats, ACD; Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN; Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance, APDA; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA; African Peoples Party, APP; Democratic Alternative, DA; Democratic Peoples Congress, DPC and Democratic Peoples Party, DPP.
Others joining the coalition include: Fresh Democratic Party; Hope Democratic Party, HDP; Labour Party, LP; Social Democratic Party, SDP; Kowa Party, KP; Modern Democratic Party, MDP; Mega Progressive Peoples Party, MPPP; Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, and Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN, and others.
Speaking on the development, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said “The political parties have resolved to take a cue from what the then legacy parties did to defeat the PDP three years ago. They will be stronger by coming together and weaker if they choose to enter the contest as independent parties. Aware of this, they are meeting frequently and what I can tell Nigerians is that the parties have decided to put Nigeria first. Whatever it takes to defend the interest of Nigeria, we will come up with it and ensure we take this country back from those who think it is exclusively theirs.