The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has backed the recent call by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the opposition parties to unite in challenging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
During a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Ag. National Chairman of NNPP, Abba Kawu Ali, commended Atiku’s patriotic call for a merger but suggested a more inclusive collaboration.
Ali said, “Just recently, former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was reported to have called for a merger of opposition parties as a way of checkmating the inordinate drive of the ruling APC towards a one-party state and protecting our hard-earned democracy.
“The NNPP sees this call from Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as patriotic and a welcome development for which we unreservedly commend him.
The NNPP, however, has modifications to that collaboration being proposed by Alh. Atiku Abubakar. We believe that such an arrangement should be all-encompassing and broad.
“To the former Vice President’s call, our party notes that this was the same bold initiative that the opposition parties signed up to in 2015 and which enabled the merger that led to the defeat of the then ruling People’sDemocratic Party (PDP).
“To that extent, the NNPP is reiterating its position that the former Vice President’s latest call is a proposal we applaud wholeheartedly.
“However, as we stated earlier, while we fully embrace this initiative and applaud it as a matter of necessity, the NNPP is looking at this issue from a much larger perspective and considering all factors inherent in it.
“Our party, without any iota of doubt, is open to collaboration, alliance, and any arrangement with any of or all the political parties including PDP, Labour Party, and APC, so long as such collaboration, alliance, or arrangement will be in the utmost interest of the Nigerian people and the protection and consolidation of Nigeria’s democracy.
“At the moment, we are studying the mood of the country and the political atmosphere. NNPP will welcome from any political party any initiative and oblige any invitation towards discussing any arrangement, aimed at protecting our people, our democracy,y and towards the much desired accelerated and sustainable development of our country.
“Thankfully, the whole country is not unmindful of the populist profile of the NNPP which draws its strength from our well -thought Constitution and Manifesto as well as a robust Kwakwasiyya Movement dedicated to the emancipation of the common man.
“It is for this singular reason of being a refuge of succor for the oppressed and largely dispossessed majority in our society that the Kwankwasiyya Movement and indeed the NNPP are consolidating and spreading its wings across communities in Nigeria’s North, South, East, and West and beyond the shores of our country.”
Kanyi Daily recalls that the National Executive Committee of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had expelled Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.