By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has opened up on the mega party being proposed by politicians, across party divides, for the 2019 general elections.
Saraki opened up in a television interview on Sunday.
Sponsors of the mega party believe it is a vehicle to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Reports indicate that some politicians from the APC, who have been sidelined in the scheme of the party’s affairs, and the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and leaders of some lesser known political parties are planning a merger, which will eventually transmute into the mega party
Said Saraki: “If the mega party will see us pushing Nigeria’s economy forward, I don’t have problem (with it). As I have said to many people, my focus now is on the economy.”
The Senate President also spoke about the APC and admitted that the ruling party may have made some mistakes but, because it was a learning curve, it is getting its onions right.
“It’s been tough. There are many things we should have done differently; we didn’t manage the success well, at the early stage.
“But, it’s a learning curve. Here is a party that hasn’t been in power for so many years. But, we are making progress. I mean, look at the budget process. Compare now to last year, you will see that the process is better and it’s going to get better as we go on.”
He also promised Nigerians that there would not be delay in the passage of the 2017 budget.
“The National Assembly will open up its budget in 2017, yes, in my own time,” he noted.
Last Wednesday, the Action Democratic Party (ADP), a new political party, submitted requirements for registration to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
ADP Protem National Chairman, Yagbayi Sani, told newsmen in Abuja, that the proposed mega party will put the country “on the path of sustainable development and national cohesion.”
Said Sani: “The current pathetic and weak conditions of the existing major political parties in Nigeria as well as the challenging socio-economic and political situation in the country made us establish this party… It is a child of necessity.
“The ADP is poised to rebuild Nigeria to achieve greatness as envisaged and desired by all. It is regrettable that, despite the enormous human resources for development that we are endowed with, the nation wallows in abject poverty, and lack of direction. The ADP is prepared and equipped to halt this slide.”
In November 2013, five PDP governors left to form the New PDP. Thereafter, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and some small parties merged with the New PDP to form the APC, which took control of more than 19 states, the Presidency and the National Assembly in the 2015 general elections.
It was the first successful merger of political parties in Nigeria.
Saraki was a major force in the 2013 merger, even though he was a first-term senator in the Seventh Senate.
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