Niger State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Babangida Aliyu, has described the on-going merger efforts by the opposition parties as normal, saying alignments and realignments are “simple political intercourse expected in every emerging democracy.”
According to him, the merger of opposition parties under the platform of All Progressives Congress will not constitute a threat to the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 general elections.
Four parties, Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for progressive Change, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the All Peoples Grand Alliance last week announced the conclusion of their merger talks and announced the APC as the political platform under which they will congregate to challenge the PDP.
Aliyu spoke on Friday on the sidelines of a one day pre-implementation workshop for the 2012 Conditional Grant Scheme organised by the Office of the Millennium Development Goals.
He stressed that coming together of parties was necessary for the growth and development of the nation’s democracy but that the merger of the opposition in the country could not defeat the ruling PDP.
He said, “I agree that no democracy grows without a credible opposition, but let me say that the PDP is a national party that cuts across all sections of this country and has touched the lives of the people positively. So, it will be difficult for these four or even all the opposition parties to defeat the PDP at the polls in 2015.”
Aliyu said the current PDP internal crisis would strengthen the party, adding that the disagreement among the party stalwarts was healthy for democracy, stressing that the party would come out stronger.
The governor said the PDP had done well for Nigeria in the last 14 years, especially in the area of projects and programmes that affect the lives of the grassroots people.