Former Governor of old Kaduna State and Chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, yesterday warned Nigerians not to elect presidential candidates of either the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), or the opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC) into office next year, insisting that both candidates do not have what it takes to turn the country around.

Balarabe Musa, who is also the national chairman of the deregistered Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), told newsmen in an interview during a meeting with 26 State Executive Committee members of the party in Kaduna, that there was no difference between the PDP and APC.

According to him, none of the two major political parties is credible enough to take Nigerians to the Promised Land. He revealed that his party, the PRP, had gone into a merger with the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), in order to be able to produce the next Nigerian President in the 2015 elections. Consequently, he called on Nigerians to vote for any candidate that is produced by the merger.

Meanwhile, leaders of the two leading political parties were unwilling to comment on Balarabe Musa’s position, yesterday.

All attempts to get in touch with the publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh; the spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, Reuben Abati, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, were unsuccessful, as they neither picked their calls nor returned text messages.

Though the deputy chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, picked his call, he declined making a comment, saying he had no comment to Musa’s statements.

Equally on his part, spokesman for the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said his party had no comment to such claims.

Musa had also disclosed that the PRP had since instituted a legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for deregistering the party, a development, which he said, was unconstitutional.

He added: “We are not in support of Buhari or Jonathan, because we are not in APC or PDP. We are neutral, and we belong to a credible alternative. That is why we merged with Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) for the purpose of the 2015 elections.

“We are a better alternative to both Jonathan and Buhari, and fundamentally, there is a distinct difference between the alliance and the APC and PDP. The alliance makes a fundamental difference in the sense that we are committed to leading the way to end all forms of insecurity, in order to ensure peace for human and infrastructural development in the country.

“None of the two parties is advanced. PDP is not that advanced, APC is not that advanced, and so, their ideology is not relevant to the people of Nigeria, because there is no way they can guarantee the constitutional provisions in the country for welfare and security of the people with a rat race, the survival of the fittest, which the APC and PDP are after. They believe in transferring everything (the economy) to the private sector, to the businessmen. They believe in the leading role of the businessmen in the economy.

“Nigerians should reject APC and PDP, because they brought about the negative state of the nation. And again, APC and PDP represent the same thing. More than half of the leadership of the APC originated from the PDP. In fact, the ones that play the leading roles in APC were all sometimes in the PDP. It was the quarrels in the PDP that made them to form their own APC.

“Our party, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) is deregistered, and so it is not presenting any presidential candidate. But it belongs to an alliance, a democratic alliance called the credible alternative alliance on the platform of ACPN; we are fielding candidates for all elective positions, including a presidential candidate in the 2015 elections. The presidential candidate will soon be announced. The candidate will be announced by the ACPN.”

Speaking further in a paper he presented to the gathering, Musa said, “When we turn our glance to the domestic front, the picture we see is gloomy. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration has proved, even to its former ardent sympathisers, that it is simply incapable of running the affairs of this nation.

“In whatever field or sector you consider, the administration’s ineptitude, bankruptcy and decadence stands out for anyone who cares to look. Poverty and unemployment are on the rise and becoming more and more unbearable.

“Agriculture, the mainstay of the national economy and source of livelihood for some 80 per cent of the population, is stagnating and in the doldrums.

“Most industries have since closed shop. Indeed, it can even be said that these past six years of President Jonathan have witnessed the de-industrialisation of Nigeria. Nigeria is now, for all practical purposes, just a large supermarket for all manner of imported goods and services.”

He continued: “Today’s meeting is summoned principally to discuss the practical steps and specific modalities that would have to be taken on the part of the PRP to effect the objectives of the alliance, particularly regarding the electoral platform on which our party shall contest the forthcoming elections.

“As we have discussed in previous meetings of our executive committees, the action of INEC is as improper as it is illegal and unconstitutional. The party has accordingly instituted appropriate legal action against this blatant abuse of our constitutionally-guaranteed political rights in the relevant courts, and deserving political actions.”

•Adapted from Newswatch Times. Photo shows Balarabe Musa.

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