PDP differs with Atiku over possible merger

In what seems to be a move to distance itself from former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has quashed any suggestion of a possible merger with other opposition political parties.

The party’s national leadership said after a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday that it is not considering any form of merger with any party, even though the PDP is open to receiving any individual wishing to join.

The party’s position is contained in a statement by Debo Ologunagba,
National Publicity Secretary, which sought to reassure Nigerians and the international community that there is no move for a merger by the main opposition party.

The statement read: “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after its 587th meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, restates for the upteenth time that the PDP is not engaged in any merger, fusion or amalgamation talks with any other political Party or interest.

“While the PDP, as a truly people’s Party, is open and welcoming to all Nigerians including our former members who left for other parties, we state that our Party remains strong and formidable, capable of winning elections in a free,fair and transparent electoral process in our country.

“The NWC acknowledges the influx of millions of Nigerians into our Party in the on-going Party Membership Drive in all the Electoral Wards across the country; which further confirms that the PDP remains the Party of choice for majority of Nigerians.

“The public, teeming members of our great Party, Democracy Institutions and of course the International Community should therefore disregard any report suggesting any form of merger between the PDP and any other political Party as such is not in the contemplation of our great party.”

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Recall that in May, the presidential candidate of the PDP and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, had met to explore the idea of the opposition coming together in a mega party ahead of the 2027 election.

The former vice president had hosted Obi in his Abuja residence before posting on his verified X handle @atiku that, “It was my honour and privilege to host @PeterObi today.”

Sources close to the former vice president disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune at the time that the meeting was a closed door session which might have centered on the proposed opposition merger.

“You know Peter Obi was his running mate in the 2019 presidential election. Even though he left the PDP to join the Labour Party, they have remained good allies,” the source volunteered.

It blamed Obi’s exit from the PDP on the alleged shenanigans of former Rivers State governor and now minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

On the purpose of the meeting, the source said even though it was not unusual for them to meet, the issue of mega party could not be ruled out in their discussion.

“Noting is off the table. You know Nigeria has been battered and shattered. So, it may be that (mega party).  I’m aware that they have been talking,” the source added.

Atiku had previously expressed his hope for the coming together of opposition parties to form a mega party, which he posited, is the only way to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

He made the call in November last year when he hosted the national executive committee of the Inter-Party Advisory Council Nigeria (IPAC) led by its national president, Yabagi Sani.

“We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn,” he said.

Meanwhile, the former vice president has taken President Bola Tinubu to task over the continued payment of petroleum subsidy and allegedly lying about it.

In a post on Wednesday on his verified X handle @atiku, he recalled that the President Tinubu, at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, announced the abolishment of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) but “ever since, it has been a bragging right of Tinubu and officials of his administration.”

Citing his earlier statement reviewing the one year of the Tinubu administration where he urged the government to come clean on the actual position of the subsidy policy, he posited that the subsidy regime had been characterized by opaqueness.

Atiku stated: “If the subsidy regime had been characterised by opaqueness, what would we say of a situation where the subsidy is still being paid under the cover without Nigerians in the know?

“Like millions of Nigerians, I was shocked to learn through media reports that the ‘government is still supporting downstream consumption.’

“Now we know that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, compared to the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023, the same year that Tinubu claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy

“I wish to restate that Nigeria is not working, and what we have had in a little over a year is a cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies.

“Paying subsidies and lying about it is nothing to brag about. Nigerians deserve better than this deception.”