ACN blames CPC's Buhari for collapse of alliance

Details: Category: Politics; Published on Thursday, 03 February 2011 08:06; Written by Daily Trust; Hits: 1886

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday blamed General Muhammadu Buhari and his Congress for Progressive Change’s (CPC) “recalcitrant and unbending attitude” for the collapse of alliance talks between the two opposition parties in the run up to the April elections. Both Buhari and the CPC however denied the claim.

ACN’s National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed said in a statement issued in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday that, ‘’For purely patriotic reasons and in the national interest, we made a lot of concessions to make the alliance work, but the CPC simply stuck to a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, behaving all through the talks as if it was the senior partner in the alliance.

‘’We invited Buhari to run for the presidency on the platform of our party. That means we were willing to even sacrifice our own candidate for the good of all. But the CPC insisted that not only must the alliance field Buhari, he must run on the platform of the CPC.

‘’We thought this demand was quite unreasonable, considering the pedigree of the ACN. Yes, CPC may be a popular party but it is largely untested. On the other hand, ACN is not only popular but it is well tested. We have four state governors, many Senators and House of Representatives members, huge number in the state houses of assembly and many council chairmen.

‘’Going into April’s election, we have a Plus 3 Advantage, in that three of our governors will not contest and two will remain in office till 2014! But the people in the CPC want us to not only concede the presidency, but also to lose our identity, when they bring little to the table. Of course we rejected that demand, which will be akin to committing political suicide. It was difficult enough having to explain to our members why we are offering to sacrifice our own presidential candidate for Buhari.

‘’To even assure Buhari, who is apparently smarting from the backstabbing he suffered from his former party, ANPP, we said if and when he wins the presidency, we can go to congress and change the name, logo and other identities of the ACN to reflect the new reality brought forth by the alliance. Again the CPC refused. We were left wondering whether indeed the people in the CPC believe in their candidate and want him to become President.

‘’Well, we can tell Nigerians that we have made the biggest sacrifice by offering to bring Buhari on board at the expense of our own candidate - just to save Nigeria from the stranglehold of the PDP. The offer we made to him is a great risk. After all he can ride on our back to become president and then defect to another party or jettison the alliance. Didn’t the governors of Zamfara, Bauchi, Abia and Imo defect to the PDP? Didn’t a sitting VP decamp to our party?

‘’We leave it to Nigerians to judge which of the parties in the alliance remained unyielding to the end, despite the compelling need to consider the overriding national interest. But we will like to assure our teeming supporters nationwide and indeed all Nigerians that our party, going it alone, will ensure that the PDP does not steal the votes of Nigerians to secure another fluke presidential mandate. The clueless party is beatable, and we will send it packing!’’

While warning the PDP not to gloat over the truncated alliance between the ACN and the CPC, Mohammed said with or without the alliance, the ACN will dislodge the PDP in April’s general elections. ACN also wondered why the PDP took it upon itself to celebrate the failure of the alliance, which ordinarily should not be its business.

‘’It is a mark of the idleness of the folks in charge of the PDP that they will resort to issuing a statement over the problems with the alliance between two opposition parties, when they should be busy strategising on how to save their party from an imminent doom,’’ ACN said.

‘’From Kwara to Ogun, Kogi to Oyo, the PDP is in a big mess, having been unable to organise successful primaries. Thank Goodness, Nigerians know which party has defied the law by organising primaries long after the statutory period has expired. Such is the lawlessness and anarchy for which the PDP has become popular!” Mohamed also said.

But speaking to Daily Trust on Alhaji Lai’s allegations, spokesperson of the CPC presidential candidate Mr. Yinka Odumakin said neither Buhari nor the CPC was responsible for the collapse of the alliance with ACN. He said the ACN was merely shifting blames to exonerate itself from the failure of the alliance.

According to him, Buhari knows the reason why he contests under the platform of CPC and that the party is gaining popularity every day since its establishment, even though it was yet to contest for any elections in the past. He said this goes to further demonstrate the party’s strength in the political stand of the nation.

Also speaking, spokesperson of CPC Engineer Rotimi Fashakin said the ACN violated the agreement which was supposed to materialise by the end of last year. He said despite the fact that talks between the two were still going on, ACN went ahead to conduct its convention and chose a presidential flag bearer in violation of the terms of the alliance.