Ahead of the 2027 general elections, eight political parties converged on Kaduna on Thursday in preparation to dislodge the governing All Progressives Congress in the next elections in the country.
The summit convened by the African Democratic Congress with the theme: ‘Solid political party structure critical to the sustainability of the democratic process,’ was held at the Arewa House, Kaduna on Thursday.
Among the political parties in attendance are the New Nigeria People’s Party, The People’s Redemption Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Social Democratic Party, KOWA Party, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Coalition of United Political Parties.
Chairman of the summit, Lawal Nalado lamented what he described as “unbearable hardship” faced by Nigerians across the country, noting that the gathering was all about discussing the nation’s barrage of problems and ways to move forward.
Nalado, who’s also former chairman of the IPAC, debunked insinuations in some quarters that the summit was convened to form a merger or a coalition amongst parties.
He argued that the current administration of President Bola Tinubu could not solve Nigeria’s problems but rather ended up creating new ones.
According to him, the opposition parties needed to mobilise voters at the grassroots by way of reaching out to the downtrodden with political enlightenment messages, capable of changing their mindset that politics should not be about money, religion or ethnicity but voting the right candidates to uplift social and economic status of the society.
Also speaking, National Chairman of PRP, Falalu Bello advocated effective mobilisation of the electorates by opposition parties, adding that fielding credible candidates was not enough to win elections, thus the need for mass mobilisation.
Bello, who was represented by Prof. Sule Muhammad, listed inadequate resources, lack of internal democracy, decayed transparency, interference by ruling party among others as problems bedevilling opposition parties in the country.
Earlier in his remarks, chairman of ADC and also IPAC Kaduna State, Ahmed Tujjani, disclosed that the summit aimed to chart a course to addressing socio-economic and above all political parties’ problems with the motive of proffering realistic solutions.
He said, “This is not a gathering for merger or forming a coalition ahead 2027 but rather a summit to discuss our common problems and suggest solutions to address them.
“We will call you again by tomorrow to read out our communique which will be a summary and possibly a mini working document of solving our problems ahead 2027.
“It is not early to start off as we have done here because our people said a Friday that will be good could be predicted from Wednesday.
“We hosted a collection of strong opposition parties and youth groups,in addition to putting heads together for the country.
“Nigerians must be informed and carried along by parties if we really want to keep citizens’ loyalty intact ahead of the next general election.”