This was reached in a resolution at a recent meeting of the NNPP.
See below
—-
TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE (NWC) OF THE NEW NIGERIA PEOPLE’S PARTY (NNPP) ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2023 AT THE NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 11, MAHATMA GANDHI STREET, OFF LORD LUGARD, AREA 11, ABUJA.
CALL BY FORMER VICE – PRESIDENT ATIKU ABUBAKAR (GCON) FOR MERGER OF OPPOSITION PARTIES AGAINST ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) – OUR STAND
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to our National Headquarters, the second time in four days.
The political atmosphere in our country is very dynamic. A lot of activities are on-going and one needs to be on alert to be able to operate effectively within the space.
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. It is our belief 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 which the opposition parties signed up to in 2015 and which enabled the merger that led to the defeat of the then ruling People’s Democratic 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 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 out 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 succour 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.
It is worthy of note that just a few months to the 2023 election, the Kwankwasiyya Movement and the TNM moved into the NNPP, a relatively unknown party without widespread structures, and was able to win Kano State for the NNPP as it did in 2019 on the platform of the PDP. We were victims of injustice and that painful experience of 2019 is still fresh in the minds of all NNPP and Kwankwasiyya supporters worldwide.
After winning resoundingly in a free and fair Kano State 2023 Governorship election like in 2019, today, we look up to the Supreme Court to uphold our hard earned victory at the polls. Two of the same injustice will be too much of a pain to bear.
In addition, the NNPP won 2 Senatorial seats, 19 Federal House of Representatives seats and over 30 State Assembly seats across the country within the short period of its new nomenclature.
Despite sponsored crisis and challenges, we are confident that the NNPP will continue to provide the necessary alternative in our political space. This we will do without prejudice to us joining forces with all other interested parties and like minds towards peace, security, progress, development and protection of our democracy and the overall interests of our country.
NNPP believes in the unity of political parties and politicians, a necessary ingredient for peace, tranquillity and development.
We are therefore calling on politicians in the country to eschew divisiveness, bitterness and rancour in the interest of our people.
We believe in the rule of law and that’s why we always run to the judiciary for succour. Our faith in the judiciary remains unshaken despite some happenings within a section of the bench.
We are therefore using this medium to call on the judiciary to live up to its billing by delivering justice at all times.
Like Kano State, we are in the Court to claim the mandate given to our Taraba State Governorship Candidate in the March 18 Election, Prof. Yahaya Sani to whom the majority of the voters in Taraba gave their votes.
We hope justice will be served to NNPP and the people of Kano State as well as Taraba State as we put a close to the 2023 General Elections.
Thank you. God Bless
Abba Kawu Ali
National Chairman
