There
are indications that the All Progressives Congress and the newly
registered Peoples Democratic Movement may work together during the 2015
general elections.
The PDM National Chairman, Alhaji Bashir
Yusuf, and the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, gave this indication in separate interviews with our
correspondent on Sunday.
Mohammed said, “We will be more than
happy to work with any party that believes that the nation needs to be
rescued from the present government.”
Yusuf, who did not give details of the
planned collaboration, however, said the PDM was at present focused on
advertising its programmes to Nigerians.
He said, “In politics, cooperation is
one of the important tenets of politics. When the need for cooperation
arises, we will consider it.”
He, however, did not say whether the
parties would consider the possibility of fielding a common
presidential candidate in 2015.
The PDM Chairman noted that the concern
of its members at present was how to convince Nigerians that the party
was a genuine alternative.
He said, “Right now, we are focused on
building the party. Our focus is on advertising our programmes. The
focus is not on elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission
has a time-frame within which to make those kinds of calculations.”
He also faulted a claim that INEC had
started the fragmentation of political parties with the registration of
the PDM and the Independent Democrats on Friday.
He said, “I believe in a democracy,
there can never be too many choices. It is the voters that will decide
the genuine alternative party and which of the parties cater for their
interests and welfare.
“Ours is to provide the platform. Ours
is to provide programmes and to market these programmes and make
Nigerians aware that we have genuine programmes for the country.”
He also dismissed a report that the
formation of the party was part of the North’s plan to wrest power from
President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to him, the party has come to clean up the mess in the country since 1960.
He stated,“Our party is formed to give
Nigerians a genuine alternative. We do not focus on individuals. The
focus is on cleaning up the mess that has been in the environment since
1960.
“The PDP is a recent creation. Jonathan
is a recent President. We are talking about the rot that has been
building up for the last 50 or so years.”
The PDM has been associated with a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
Some newspapers (The PUNCH not included) had last week reported that the former vice-president was behind the move to register the party.
Last Thursday, Atiku said he was still a member of the PDP, adding that he was not involved in the formation of the PDM.
He, however, admitted that his associates formed the new party.
PUNCH
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