2011 Presidency Buhari, Tinubu Deal Crashes
General Muhammadu Buhari
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The much-talked about political alliance between General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Chief Bola Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) ahead of the 2011 presidential ballot may have collapsed afterall.
Sunday Trust learnt that Buhari’s CPC had put on the table an option of a political alliance and not merger with any political party while the Tinubu’s ACN was favourably disposed to both political merger and alliance.
A merger or alliance between the two parties would have helped to tackle the perceived lack of national spread of the two political parties which have strong bases in the North and South-West respectively. It was expected that with the deal, the ACN, which has massive supporters in a section of the South-West would work for Buhari in the 2011 elections, so that the two groups could share power in Abuja if the alliance defeated the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, speaking to Sunday Trust yesterday, ACN’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said that the deal between the two parties had collapsed as the two parties were unable to agree on certain principles and conditions that were put on the table at the beginning of the talks.
He said, “For instance, on the issue of merger, the ACN wants purely merger with the CPC and that will involve cooperation in all elections, while the CPC insisted that it is only interested in political alliance and cannot do merger.
“Based on this disagreement, it may not be possible for the two parties to come together as we approach the 2011 elections. Already, the talks have been on and off, and now, the possible deal between the ACN and CPC has collapsed,” Mohammed added.
Also, the National Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Dr Usman Bugaje, confirmed the earlier position expressed by Lai Mohammed, but added that in the changing dynamic of politics one should not close his doors against a possible alliance until the last minute.
According to him, while the two groups went their separate ways due to fundamental disagreements, he still believed that something may happen from either side as the time for the 2011 election was still much, especially as congresses had not yet been done by the two parties.
Speaking on the matter, the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Mr. Aghanya Dennis, said that the deal collapsed because the CPC had made its own position clear to the ACN that it could not enter into merger to change its name and logo.
Last week, the CPC sent a five-man delegate to Lagos where a meeting was held between its team and the representatives of the ACN. At that meeting, Sunday Trust learnt that the two parties could not reach an agreement, as none was willing to accept the position of the other which gave way for the collapse of the talks.
Giving reasons for the CPC’s insistence not to enter into merger, Mr Dennis said, “One of the reasons is that the CPC has a very large followership at the grassroots level and many of the electorate are not very educated. Therefore, to keep changing our logo will mean serious danger to our success because there is not enough time to keep going back to educate them all the time.
“Again, most of our party members are former All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) members and we have suffered in building our new party. Therefore, instead of us to merger with another political party, it will be better for us to go back to the ANPP,
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