Sophia Michaels
Former Kano state governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has made a boast on Tuesday.
He bragged that under his watch, APC will swallow all opposition political parties.
Ganduje disclosed his move on Tuesday night while speaking with journalists shortly after his meeting with former Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong.
Ganduje had earlier had a private meeting with former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike at his residence in Abuja.
He dropped the hint that he has started reaching out to chieftains of certain opposition parties in other to consolidate the ruling party’s grip on the political space ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Ganduje also said he has a blueprint for increasing the membership drive in his party.
He said: ”It will certainly improve the chances of this our party, especially in 2027 and not only that we are coming out with a new blueprint to increase the followership of the party and this we include all strata of officials; those who are in APC and those who are in other political parties. I assure you very soon some of the political parties will even merge with the APC. We are doing that underground.”
Asked about his meeting with a chieftain of the main opposition party and Minister-designate, Nyesom Wike, the APC Chairman who acknowledged that the former Rivers State governor would be an asset to APC, however, claimed that their private meeting has nothing to do with the latter plans to dump the PDP.
“You know Wike is an honourable Minister-designate. So he came, we discussed it because I was looking for him to congratulate him on that, and also he came to congratulate me. We discussed that when he becomes Minister fully, he will work very hard in order to move the Ministry he is given forward and he is ready to cooperate.
“But we didn’t discuss the issue of his coming to APC or not coming to APC. That issue will arise later.”
Reacting to the APC plan for a merger with other opposition parties, National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiorah Ifoh told Tribune Online in a telephone interview that his party would not be involved in such a plan as he noted that it would be inimical to the growth of democracy.
He said: “I haven’t heard about it. But in responding to your question, LP has no business with a merger with any other political party because our aims and objectives are quite different from what APC stands for.
“In any case, our interest now is to regain our mandate through the tribunal. That’s our own interest. We don’t intend to open a discussion with APC or any other party. For us, we won’t have anything to do with APC. So, we wish APC well in its unification drive. In any case, it won’t augur well for democracy when you try to unify political parties. We need diverse political parties for the growth of democracy.”
