2019: 11 political parties form coalition

…. To present Presidential candidate
Ahead of 2019 general elections in the country, preparations and permutations seem to have begun as 11 registered Political Parties have come together to form a group known as Coalition for a New Nigeria (CNN) to field a presidential candidate in the election.

The political parties include, Labor Party (LP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Democratic People’s Congress (DPC), Action Alliance (AA), Progressives People’s Alliance (PPA), Young Democratic Party (YDP) Democratic Alternative (DA) and National Conscience Party (NCP).

Others are People Democratic Change (PDC), United Democratic Party (UDP) and National Action Congress (NAC).

Addressing newsmen during the official public presentation of the new group on Monday in Abuja, National chairman of Labor Party who is also the coalition’s chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam said that all the parties involved will work together to ensure that its common candidate emerge victorious at the next general election.

“After several consultations and cordial discussions on the political and economic situation of the country, we the following political parties to be known and addressed as Coalition for a New Nigeria have chat a positive course for a new Nigeria”, he said.

“This coalition have been working for three months now, to see how we can run a successful government in Nigeria and effect the real change in the country. We are working on how to present a credible presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.

So, we are surely not working in collaboration with either the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) or the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but will present a credible presidential candidate for Nigerians in the next election”, he said.

When asked if the coalition would metamorphose to a merger, the interim Chairman said; “it will remain a coalition and we are not contemplating a merger, each party remains independent and autonomous but we are to come together to support a new government in 2019 at the centre”.

The coalition’s leader also said that the group is committed to pursuing economic, political and internal restructuring of Nigeria, empowerment of youths, women and persons with disability; adding that “the body would strive to respect the rule of law, protection of democratic institutions so as to build a nation of great dreams where equity and justice shall be the guiding principle”.

Another member of the coalition and the National Chairman of the Democratic People’s Congress (DPC), Olusegun Peters said that the intention of the coalition is to field a consensus candidate for the next presidential election.

Tom Okpe, Abuja