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One of Nigeria’s main opposition
parties, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has declared that the party
is not obsessed with taking power from the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) in the next general elections but, rather, it is concerned about
getting people’s votes to count.

Lai Mohammed, the party’s national
publicity secretary, said this while on an official visit to NEXT
Newspaper’s office at the weekend to discuss a number of issues. “We
are not obsessed about taking power from the PDP. We are more concerned
and, therefore insisting that votes must count. Nigerians must be
allowed to choose who they want to rule them. They are the ones
responsible to choose who rules them,” Mr Mohammed said.

Opposition party in Nigeria

On the dwindling
strength of opposition parties in Nigeria, despite being over 50
parties, Mr Mohammed stated that the only opposition parties in Nigeria
are the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All People’s Grand
Alliance (APGA) and Labour party. “All the other parties are just PDP
in different names. Or how will you explain 46 political parties
supporting a candidate of the ruling party” he noted, following the
announcement on Friday that 46 parties under a nebulous grand coalition
of political parties declared their support for the candidacy of the
incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, ahead of the 2011 polls. “Those
parties only exist to sell their votes to the PDP on the day of the
election.” He also affirmed that talks are ongoing with some of the
parties. “We were recently in talks with the CPC before it collapsed
but consultations have resumed and we are also in talks with Labour
Party and we will be very willing to talk with the APGA,” he said.

Internal democracy within ACN

Mr Mohammed noted
that internal democracy is a strong virtue of the party and this will
be very evident in the forthcoming party convention. He explained that
there will be no consensus candidate on the party’s platform, as every
candidate will be subjected to a very “transparent and due process.”
“People need to understand our history, that AC did not become a
political party until July 2006 and we were expected to submit
candidates within only three months for the 2007 election, hence the
consensus candidate. But this time around, a thorough due process is
what we are using,” he said.

He described the
party (ACN) as a “new factory” that will churn-out “great product.” “We
are working towards building ACN into a great party with strong
foundations, as we now send some of our staffers to South Africa for
exchange courses with the African National Congress to learn and,
therefore, deepen our democratic structures.

Election tribunal

Asked whether the
party will again resort to the court rooms to solve electoral matters
post-2011 elections, he said the party will not go to court at all this
time around. “We have told our members across the nation that the true
results must be determined at the polls. We will sit on the fields by
the ballot boxes and ensure that nobody tampers with the voting this
time,” he said.

“You will agree
with me that in the interest of democracy, it is not proper for five to
six judges to determine the results of elections.” He claimed the party
recorded success in its suits against the 2007 election malpractices as
seen in Bayelsa, Cross River and Ekiti States, where re-run elections
were ordered, but they again lost owing to what he described as
“symptomatic of the same problem everywhere the election was
re-ordered.”

Atiku Abubakar

Responding to
whether the party will again welcome its presidential candidate in the
last election, as he is struggling to get a place in the PDP. Mr
Mohammed said that “he is welcome back as a member of the party, but
definitely not for an elective office.”

“We feel very disappointed for him (Atiku) because his move is
tantamount to a political suicide for him. He would have been a
president in waiting, if he had stayed with AC.”