The Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Tuesday formally pulled out of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) comprising over 49 registered Political Parties ahead of the 2019 general elections
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday night by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Alfa Mohammed, SDP which was one of the first political parties to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to wrestle power with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC said it decided to pull out of because the process adopted was circumvented to achieve a predetermined end.
The Party disclosed that its decision to pull out of the Union was reached after its expanded caucus meeting held in Abuja on Monday
It explained that the meeting reviewed the controversies regarding the CUPP adoption of a consensus candidate, noting the leadership of the CUPP Steering Committee disregarded the spirit of inclusiveness, unity and the shared vision that propelled the Rainbow Coalition.
According to the statement, “the Chairman of the Steering Committee, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola “jumped the gun” in announcing the endorsement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi as the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the CUPP.
It however said Prince Oyinlola apologised at another meeting held on Friday, December 7 and promised to call a bigger meeting on Monday, “for damage control.”
According to it, “the alliance was forged on the premise of mutual understanding that all constituent political parties in the coalition would work together and that they would be guided by the spirit and letter of the MoU as signed
“Each political party in the coalition was to produce its presidential candidate and at the end of it all, the candidates would be made to submit to a committee that would assess and rate them based on agreed scales
“The candidate considered as meeting the set parameters and guidelines would be declared as the consensus candidate of the CUPP coalition for the presidential election
“It was also expected that the candidates would agree on who was best suited to run with the consensus candidate as a vice-presidential candidate while the political platform to use would also be an issue of common agreement,” SDP stated.
The party alleged that the action of the PDP truncated the success of the CUPP as a working coalition at the presidential level.
According to the SDP, PDP’s approach towards consensus building was a major setback, adding that the MoU was “mainly PDP driven. The PDP runs it as if others must shape in or ship out.
“The PDP runs timelines to suffocate other parties or to get to a point where events have already overtaken issues; like deadlines at INEC have run out.
“The PDP pressed on with its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, appointing his running mate, DG of Campaign and all positions and, of course, making the selection of any other platform impossible or impracticable however impeccable the platform could be.
“The PDP also displays some form of ‘we can do it alone’ type of arrogance.”
It, therefore, resolved that the emergence of a consensus candidate was unacceptable to it, because it did not follow due process nor did it measure up to the established standard assented to by CUPP members.
“The MoU clearly provides for agreement of all the political parties before any public endorsement.
“As it turned out eventually, it is obvious that the process was circumvented to achieve a predetermined end,” the party added.
SDP said its presidential candidate, Donald Duke and his running mate, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam will contest next year’s presidential election.