Following the recent call by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for opposition parties to merge to successfully challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), seven political parties have come together in a coalition.
The parties in the new coalition include the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples Allied Movement (PAM), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Young Progressives Party (YPP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
Officials of the parties met in Abuja on Wednesday to initiate the process of expressing the idea floated by the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election.
They posit that the new move is born out of the need to strengthen democratic ideals in the country.
The SDP national chairman, Shehu Gabam, hosted the meeting under the aegis of the Coalition of Concerned Political Parties.
But he was keen to stress that the coalition is neither a merger nor against the existence of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).
Speaking on the coalition’s intention, he noted the country’s instability level.
He called on the judiciary to eliminate political and executive interference and save Nigeria’s democracy.
Gabam said, “We looked into the issue of the judiciary. The judiciary is the last hope of the common man if it still stands.
“We are worried about the level of instability the country is going through. If you look at recent developments in Zamfara, Nasarawa, Kano, and Plateau states, it is very clear that the judiciary must exercise extreme caution with some of its decisions.
“The judiciary should strengthen its conviction towards delivering judgments that can stand the test of time. They should not allow we politicians to infiltrate their rank, sanity, and capacity to deliver internationally sound judgments that can be recognized.”
In his remark, the acting National Secretary of the PDP, Setonji Koshoedo, who represented the acting party’s national chairman, Umar Damagum, expressed optimism that the coalition will offer a strong opposition.
In his address, the national chairman of the ADC, Ralph Nwosu, explained that the idea behind the coalition is to strengthen the nation’s democracy.
“We have seen that people in government are trying to stifle viable opposition,” he said.
Recall that Atiku had called on the country’s opposition parties to come together in a merger to enable them to challenge the APC successfully in November.
He made the call when he hosted the national executive committee of IPAC led by its national president, Yabagi Sani.
“We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn,” he said.
The former presidential candidate of PDP had also cautioned against the likelihood of Nigeria slipping into becoming a one-party state.
He had told his guests that “the project of protecting democracy in our country is not about just one man. You have come here today to say that we should cooperate to promote democracy.
“But the truth of the matter is that our democracy is fast becoming a one-party system, and, of course, you know that when we have a one-party system, we should just forget about democracy.”
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