National chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said opposition political parties could, in no distant time, merge with the ruling party.
Ganduje, who spoke to reporters at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, said he would soon come up with a blueprint for achieving the objective.
“It will certainly improve the chances of our party, especially in 2027. And not only that, we are coming out with a new blueprint to increase followership. This will 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,” Ganduje said.
He also gave insight into his deliberations with minister-designate, Nyesom Wike, when the former Rivers State governor visited his Abuja residence, earlier in the week.
The visit by Wike, a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had fuelled speculations that the former governor was about to jump ship.
He said: “You know, Wike is an honourable minister-designate. He came, we discussed because I was looking for him, to congratulate him for that. And also, he came to congratulate me.
“We discussed that when he becomes minister fully, he will work very hard to move forward the ministry he would be given, 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.”
This came as a PDP chieftain and former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, warned that the party could become extinct if reforms are not made urgently.
He disclosed this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily yesterday, stressing that the party lost some of its strongholds to Labour Party (LP) in the last election.
He said: “The PDP is a government that was in power for 16 years. Its instinct is that of a government party; not an opposition party. And it has taken us eight years to begin to realise this. We smell the coffee; that it’s not four years and we are back…or we are coming back the next day.
“Now, we are beginning to see that PDP itself needs to be reformed. It needs to renew and re-imagine itself to be able to begin to play the role of opposition, knowing full well that we have a politician as president.”
He added: “If PDP doesn’t get its acts together, it will be an extinct party. So, we need to wake up, smell the coffee, find the kind of leadership that will represent us in an opposition atmosphere, and begin to do the work of the opposition.
“We must do the work of mobilisation and imbibe technology. The last four years have taught us a bitter lesson that a young party can come up and take away PDP strongholds in an election cycle.”
Meanwhile, minister-designate and former Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, has justified the decision to pick Ganduje as national chairman, despite protestations by some party members.
He said: “Ganduje was a governor. As a matter of fact, when we look at his antecedents, we always say he is the longest-experienced politician we have within us. He is somebody who stayed very long in civil service. He became permanent secretary, commissioner, longest serving deputy governor, and then became governor.
“With this kind of experience, what else do you need in party matters? So, we have confidence in him as he is now here. And it is not an issue of one man; anytime he has an opportunity, he does a lot of consultations, and we are always available.
“His colleagues who were governors with him are always available for this kind of work. That is why we are rallying around to give him every help, so that the party can also succeed.”
