 |
| Chief Tom Ikimi |
•Say transparency, equity to guide leadership structure
•Governors fail to break deadlock over leadership
tussle
•INEC: We’re not under pressure not to register coalition
By: Chuks Okocha and Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Leading opposition parties have taken a major step towards
concretising their plans for a merger by applying to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) for the registration of a new party, All
Progressives Congress (APC).
The parties -- Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress
for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as
factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Democratic Peoples
Party (DPP) -- which have been embroiled in inter-party tussle for the
formation of the interim leadership of APC, also said they had resolved to
ensure that transparency and equity ruled the process.
The disagreement was evident as the party filed the
application for registration without constituting a pro tem executive as
required by INEC.
An attempt by governors elected on the platform of the
constituent parties to broker a deal in the sharing of leadership positions in
the budding political party ended in a deadlock, THISDAY learnt Tuesday.
Addressing reporters shortly after their resumed talks
Tuesday in Abuja, the Chairman of ACN Merger Committee and spokesman for the
joint merger committees, Chief Tom Ikimi, said the coalition formally filed an
application with INEC last Friday for the registration of APC.
“The request for the approval of the merging parties have
been signed and submitted by the three signatories authorised to sign it,” he
said.
According to Ikimi, those who signed the documents
accompanying the application were the three chairmen and secretaries of ACN,
CPC and ANPP who were statutorily permitted to do so.
“For now, only three parties have done their conventions,
ACN, CPC and ANPP, and these are the ones authorised to have those documents
signed. There are nine people who have
signed those documents and the request was submitted last Friday,” he said.
Ikimi almost confirmed the apprehension over the brewing
leadership crisis threatening the merger process, when he said the formation of
the APC leadership structure must respect the principle of equity and
transparency.
On the apparent disagreement among the constituent parties
in the coalition over the APC leadership, Ikimi explained that contrary to the
general apprehension that there was a crisis over the merger arrangement, the
parties have concluded their meeting under a peaceful atmosphere.
He said one of the decisions reached at the merger talks was
that the parties should engage in more consultations on the outstanding issues.
The statement read by Ikimi at the end of the merger meeting
stated: “We are aware that millions of Nigerians await the final registration
of our new party, the APC, so that they can avail themselves the opportunity to
take up its membership. The plan, hope
and commitment of the merger committees are that the new party will be broad
based, open and truly belong to all its members equally. To this end, we have all subscribed to our
new constitution and it defines, quite clearly, the leadership structure of the
party. This principle underscores equity
and fair play among party members without prejudice.
“We will therefore strive to guarantee transparency and
internal party democracy particularly at this stage of registration. We expect
all of us involved in the process to also subscribe to and respect these
fundamental principles.”
Governors of the opposition parties met until late on Monday
night to resolve the disagreements over the sharing of the budding party’s
leadership positions without much success.
The meeting, which was held at the Lagos Governor’s Lodge,
Abuja, was attended by most of the governors but the lingering issue of who
takes what office in the merger arrangement has continued to pose a major
challenge to the arrangement.
A source told THISDAY that the meeting ended in a deadlock
because the governors would not shift positions to concede the contentious
offices of the national chairman and national secretary to other parties besides
theirs.
But they agreed that time was of essence and that they
should consult more to be able to sort out the logjam. They also mandated the
Ikimi committee to work out a more acceptable format to end the disagreement.
Speaking on the controversy trailing the agreement on APC
interim leadership structure, ACN National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said there was no time limit under the law compelling the merging
parties to name the leadership.
“There is no time for which we are to submit a list of our
interim national officers. We do not owe
anybody any obligation to do so in one day or three days. We are not going to
satisfy the media or the public at the expense of the good health of the
party. We must understand that this is
the first time this kind of thing is happening. What we ever had before may be
alliances or coalition, this is the first time merger is happening and we are
determined we would not do it wrongly,” he said.
On the fears over the possibility of not scaling the INEC
registration hurdle, especially in view of the controversy over the APC
abbreviation, Mohammed said such fears were unfounded, adding that the
coalition was confident that having filed its application with the commission,
it would lead to the registration of APC within the next 30 days.
The coalition merger has been locked in an identity battle
with African Peoples Congress (APC), which shares the APC abbreviation with it.
The rival APC political group is in court to challenge
INEC’s refusal to register it and among other reliefs it is seeking, is an
order of the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, to restrain the commission
from registering any other party under the APC abbreviation pending the
determination of the case before it.
However, Mohammed allayed the fear that the legal tussle
could affect the registration of the opposition coalition, saying as far as the
parties were concerned, they had studied the laws well and had complied with
the relevant sections of the law for the registration of APC.
“All I can say is that the parties have complied with the
relevant electoral laws. The three national chairmen and secretaries of the
parties that have held their national conventions approving the merger are
those who signed the application letter for APC registration and that is what
is provided by the law,” he said.
Another chieftain of APC and a member of the Legal
sub-committee of the merger, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, told THISDAY in an interview
that his committee studied the Electoral Act carefully before adopting the
procedure to allow the party chairmen to initiate the registration process.
Meanwhile, INEC Tuesday denied insinuations that it was
under pressure to decline the registration of APC, saying the 1999 Constitution
and the Electoral Act are clear on the provisions for the registration of
groups seeking to be registered as parties or political parties wishing to
merge.
Reacting to a news report that the chairman of the
commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was under pressure not to register the APC,
the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said it
was not true that the commission was under any pressure.
He said: “Both the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the
Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) prescribe specific conditions that any group
seeking registration as a new political party or intending to evolve from a
merger process must fulfil. INEC is a regulatory body whose duty is to make
sure that applications for registration meet those conditions as applicable.
“Applications to INEC for registration as political parties
are a purely routine operational matter, and they are treated as such in the
light of guiding statutory provisions.”
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