From Femi Mustapha, in Kaduna
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), and other eight political parties held a summit in Kaduna Thursday to strategise ahead of 2027 to build stronger party structures to be able to wrest power both from the ruling APC and the main opposition party, PDP.
Chairman of the summit, Lawal Nalado while lamenting what he described as unbearable hardship faced by Nigerians across the country, hinted that the gathering was called to discuss the nation’s barrage of problems and to chart the way forward for citizens to make informed decisions ahead of the next general elections.
He debunked insinuations that the summit was convened to form a merger or a coalition amongst parties.
Nalado gave an assessment of the present administration in Abuja, saying it could not solve Nigeria’s problems but rather ends up creating new ones.
He stated that opposition parties needed to mobilize voters at the grassroots by way of reaching out to the downtrodden with political enlightenment messages, capable of changing their mindset that politics should not be about money, religion, or ethnicity but voting for the right candidates to uplift the social and economic status of the society.
In his remarks, National Chairman of PRP, Falalu Bello advocated effective mobilization of the electorate by opposition parties, adding that fielding credible candidates was not enough to win elections, thus the need for mass mobilization.
Represented by Professor Sule Muhammad, Falalu Bello listed inadequate resources, lack of internal democracy, decayed transparency, and interference by the ruling party among others as problems bedeviling opposition parties in the country.
For his part, the IPAC National Chairman called on opposition parties to adhere to principles of accountability, transparency, and diverse effective means of holding government accountable, saying it would go a long way in putting elected and appointed officials on their toes in ensuring delivering dividends of democracy to citizens.
In his goodwill message, the National Chairman of the KOWA party and spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) challenged the opposition parties on the need to be active and vocal in pointing out shortcomings and lapses of the government in power so the ruling party would rise to its duties and responsibilities to the people.
Earlier in his address, chairman of ADC and also IPAC, Kaduna State Ahmed Tijjani Mustapha disclosed that the summit aimed to chart a course to address socioeconomic and above all political parties’ problems with the motive of proffering realistic solutions.
“This is not a gathering for a merger or forming a coalition ahead of 2027 but rather a summit conveyed to discuss our common problems and suggest solutions for addressing them.
“We will call you again by tomorrow to read out our communique which will be a summary and possibly a mini and working document of solving our problems ahead 2027.
“It is not too early to start as we have done here because our people said a Friday that will be good could be predicted from Wednesday.
“We hosted a collection of strong opposition parties and youth groups, in addition to putting heads together for the country.
“Nigerians must be informed and carried along by parties if we want to keep citizens’ loyalty intact ahead of the next general election,” he suggested.
The Summit had in attendance a
host of opposition parties including the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Social Democratic Party (SDP), KOWA Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Coalition of United Political Parties(CUPP) among others.
