Mega party to provide alternative platform – Oyegun

By GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BENIN—FORMER governor of Edo State and chieftain of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,  Sunday, said that the purpose of opposition political parties coming together to form a mega party was not solely to remove the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from office but to create a credible alternative platform for Nigerian electorate.

Oyegun, who spoke with Vanguard in an interview in Benin,  also denied the assertion by a former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, that Southern leaders were beating the drum of the dismembering of the country and advised the North to look inward in finding a solution to the problem of Boko Haram.

He said: “The formation of a mega party is not for the sole aim of contesting the 2015 presidential election because that would be interpreted to mean that our sole purpose is to remove PDP. We pray that happens, but the core of our coming together is to present to the Nigerian electorate an alternative; an alternative with a credible message; an alternative that identifies with their pains and aspirations.

“As at today, no matter how we abuse PDP, or how aware we are of the mis-governance of the country, Nigerians have no credible alternative to PDP. They are the only ones that seem to have given themselves a seemingly image of a national party with a national spread.

“We are trying to construct for the benefit of the Nigerian people, an alternative that will also have a national image and a national spread. To re-emphasise what I said earlier, we want a party that identifies with the people, with the hope and aspirations of the Nigerian people. We will make that very clear in the message we have when the right time comes.

”We are making reasonable progress,  treading very cautiously and slowly. We are not unaware that there are problems, interests  and intrigues within each group, but the message we have for  everybody and for ourselves is that whatever interest we have within the party, the interest of the people and the Nigerian nation is clearly more important. That is the premise from which we are approaching it.”