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The Conference of
Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has asked the leadership of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)
to come to an agreement in their ongoing alliance talks to present a
common presidential candidate for the April 9 elections. As the
deadline for political parties to submit their candidates to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) expires today, the
group said it is making the call because the alliance is the surest way
to vote out the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from power.

Both parties have,
in the past months, been discussing the possibility of presenting a
common presidential candidate for the elections. However, the
discussions are yet to come to fruition following an alleged insistence
by ACN chieftain and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, to be
running mate to Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC, rumoured to be the
favourite joint presidential candidate of the alliance.

Another problem confronting the parties is: which platform will the candidates use for the presidential contest?

“We challenge Major
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other
leadership of the various progressive political parties to close ranks
and present Nigerians with an alternative common presidential candidate
platform on or before the close of substitutions of candidates in
February 2011,” the CNPP said in a statement signed by its
spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu, in Abuja.

Distinct position

The CNPP said that
it is of the view that Nigerians are fed up with the failure of PDP to
provide electricity, to fix roads and to provide employment in the past
decade, adding that the people are not ready to reward the ruling party
for poor leadership, failed promises and pervasive corruption.

The national consensus, according to the CNPP, is that it will be a
gratuitous insult to allow PDP to actualize its “dream of ruling
Nigeria for 60 years in the midst of glaring failure of leadership,
squandermania, food-is-ready economic policy and gross incapacity to
provide security in the land”.