PPA DEFENDS MERGER WITH PDP

By NBF News

The Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) once again has given reason for its merger with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The party said that the marriage between the two parties was done out of national interest.

PPA stalwart, Mr. John Otanwa, noted that, 'the interests we seek to serve by merging with PDP are two. The first one is the national interest because whatever you do without the collective interest of the nation, then it is personal and self seeking.

'This time around, we look at it from the perspective of the development in PDP; there is no arguing the fact that PDP is the greatest party in the entire African continent and if you are fortunate enough to have such a big party from your own country, it devours you some how to play a part in the system.

'Now, why is it that some of us went out of PDP? Most Nigerians you see were either former PDP members before becoming members of other parties. What was the reason? There was no internal democracy in the party then. And because of this, so many of us felt hurt because what ought to have been done democratically were done by godfather. And we think, with the coming of President Goodluck Jonathan, he came with a message that every vote will count, not only during national elections but that even in the PDP family.'

Speaking exclusively on Friday with Daily Sun in Abuja, the former national legal adviser of defunct PPA explained further that, 'if every vote counts during primaries, everybody becomes a stakeholder in PDP family. It means that anybody can aspire for any elective position in PDP. By implications, anybody can become anything. More so, the determination of President Jonathan to restores internal democracy in appointing Professor Atahiru Jiga as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman is a sort of giving us confidence in the political arrangement of this country.

'Having seen all these things put in place by PDP, we felt it is right that we should now go and be partakers in the new re-birth. The re-birth of the rule of the game; The re-birth of constitutionalism and personality. That is why we say let us take a journey back home again. The good thing is that the umbrella is large enough to accommodate all of us.'

He also dismissed insinuations that the political alliance between parties would lead to one party state, stressing that it would only strengthens opposition among the political parties, which he said in turn would deepens our democracy.' The possibility of Nigeria developing into a one party state is not possible. For example, in South Africa, they have opposition party but ANC still remains the most formidable, and I think that is what is happening in Nigeria. What is happening now in Nigeria is likened to PDP going to be ANC of South Africa,' he argued.