Nigeria election: Leaders of smaller parties consider ‘coalition’: L-R: Fela Durotoye, Kingsley Moghalu, and Omoyele Sowore
Nigeria election: Leaders of smaller parties consider ‘coalition’
If their permutations go through, leaders of smaller parties may form an alliance with the aim to defeat the bigger parties why they call ‘two sides of evil coin’.
The bigger parties which stand the chance of winning the elections are: the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Smaller parties that wrought the chances of working together for the election are the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), African Action Congress (AAC),Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN)
Presidential candidate of the ACPN, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili on Thursday withdrew from the election race, suggesting that she would support a coalition. Presidential candidate of the ANN, Fela Durotoye, has expressed his willingness to commit to a third force coalition. This is happening just weeks to the presidential election on February 16.
The main female candidate in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election said she is withdrawing her candidacy to help build a coalition to defeat the ruling All Progressive Congress.
Oby Ezekwesili announced her decision on Thursday in a series of posts on Twitter.
“I have decided to step down from the presidential race and focus on helping to build a Coalition for a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the 2019 general elections,” she said.
“This coalition for a viable alternative has now more than ever before become an urgent mission for and on behalf of the citizenry,” she added.
In his statement, Durotoye commended Ezekwesili for leading the charge to form a coalition to present a consensus candidate for the 2019 presidential election.
He further expressed his readiness to ensure an alliance is formed with other prominent candidates, Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), and Prof. Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), to present a united front for the election.
He said he would step down if the process produces someone else as consensus candidate and urged other candidates to join the train to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, “To be clear, if the process produces any other candidate apart from myself, I AM READY to support whoever the Consensus Candidate is and to do all I can to support the coalition to win the 2019 Presidential elections for our generation.
“Let us come together and seize this historic window of opportunity for our generation to select one of us to go ahead of us…so that ALL OF US can come together and speak with one voice at the 2019 General Elections.
“Together, we can do the perceived impossible. Our generation is depending on us. We must not let them down”.
Moghalu recently described the coalition as “a political assassination attempt” to derail his candidacy by certain powerful forces. Sowore dumped the coalition before the election because of what he described as irregularities in the constitution of the participants.
The February 16 presidential election is expected to be a keen contest between APC’s President Muhammadu Buhari and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.