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Talks between the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) aimed at producing an alliance broke down again on Monday
night following the inability of the delegations of the two parties to
agree on which platform the aspirants should contest the elections.

At a meeting held
in the Maitama District, Abuja home of the deputy chairman of the Board
of Trustees of the CPC, Sule Hamma, the two parties were said to have
rejected proposals for either of the parties to be used by aspirants.

While the CPC
delegation insisted that its platform should be used, those of the ACN
wanted their party’s platform to be used by the presidential candidate
since it is coming into the arrangement as a senior partner.

The ACN delegation
reportedly said that apart from having four governors, the party has a
semblance of national spread than the CPC.

A source at the
party, however, said the two parties could also not resolve the issue
of who should fly the presidential flag as well as the running mate.

“The major areas of
disagreement were the platform on which to use and the issue of running
mate. But the issue of running mate was not much of a problem rather it
was the platform. Because of these areas of disagreement, the meeting
was inconclusive,” the source stated yesterday.

When contacted, the
spokesman of the CPC, Dennis Aghanya merely confirmed that the two
parties met in Abuja on Monday night, but refused to speak further.

“I can’t tell you
anything now,” he said. “By the time we conclude the alliance talks we
will tell you everything. It is true the parties met in Abuja.” The
spokesman of the ACN, Lai Mohammed could not be reached for comments.

The two parties
have been engaged in alliance talks for several months with a view to
confronting the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2011
polls. However, the talks have not yielded any fruit following the
alleged insistence of the CPC to produce its presidential candidate.

There were also
reports that at some point, the ACN agreed to produce the vice
presidential candidate but could not agree on who to pick among the
former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, the former governor of
Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo and former governor of Anambra State, Chris
Ngige.

If they finally agree to form the alliance, the parties will present common candidates where each of them is strong.