Opposition Parties Merged to Unseat the PDP Vow to Stick with the Name – APC | Accuse INEC of Plotting with the PDP

The opposition parties that merged in Nigeria recently, seeking to be registered as All Progressive Congress (APC), have vowed to stick to their proposed name, saying it won’t change it as suggested by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC had earlier said that a group with the same acronym had approached it for registration as a political party. It therefore advised the opposition parties to consider a new name in order to avoid confusion between registered political parties with similar names and acronyms.

But this has not gone down well with the merged parties who claim INEC is lying about its claim and is working with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to frustrate their efforts.

The opposition party was formed early last month after 10 state governors from four political parties met in Lagos and resolved to endorse a merger to present a united front against the PDP {click here to read full report}. The parties merging to form the APC are the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All People’s Grand Allaince (APGA) and the All Nigeria People’s Party, (ANPP).

This refusal by the INEC to register APC has also made them a laughing stock in front of the PDP. In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, he said the leaders of the APC were “writing footnotes and glossary even when the first chapter of their history had not been successfully written.”

“How can a group which could not conclude the basic as in due registration of its name be able to manage the affairs of Nigeria at this moment of critical challenge,” Punch quoted him as saying.

The APC has however resolved to stick to their name and present a united front against INEC. The National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed told Punch that the APC would not change its name. The CPC spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin, said he agreed with Mohammed and would show to the whole world that “INEC is indeed in collusion with the ruling party, the PDP, to extirpate any vestige of constitutional democracy from Nigeria’s political space.”

***

Without a name, the opposition parties cannot begin to convince Nigerians to give them their votes in the upcoming elections. What are your thoughts on the current rift betwen INEC and APC? Do you think the PDP is behind this?