WorldStage Newsonline– A group called G21 has announced that 17 political parties in Nigeria had formed a new alliance to adopt one candidate to contest for the 2019 presidential election.
Dr. Yakubu Shendam, National Chairman of New Generation Party (NGP) who doubles as the coordinating national chairman of G21, made the announcement at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, but did not list the names of the parties involved.
He disclosed that the alliance was still open to admit new entrants into its fold, but that membership will not exceed 21 political parties.
He said “The only way for us to seize power from the current dispensation is to come together in alliance. Of course, if we don’t do that, we can’t go anywhere. We cannot win the elections on our own by filing various presidential candidates.”
Some people who claimed to be representatives of the parties which had registered for the alliance were in attendance at the event that took place at the national headquarters of NGP.
Shendam did not give details of the said alliance, but said “most of our parties have structures all over the states. All we need to do now is to mobilise our members across to begin to begin to work in partnership with this G21.”
He said the political parties were not merging like the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) prior to 2015 general elections, but formed an alliance whose unity and purpose was to produce a consensus Presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.
“We are only interested in the presidential election. The House of Assembly and National Assembly elections and Governorship will be run in our individual parties,” he stated, adding: “the issue of merger is not discussed here – we are only discussing alliance and take a position on adoption of a presidential candidate in 2019,” he said.
Shendam said the G21 was yet to identify who would be its flag bearer in the 2019 presidential election, saying, “As we continue to hold our meetings across the country, we believe that we will be able to have and unveil our candidate to Nigerians.”
